The Truth - or a social lie.
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The Truth - or a social lie.
I visited the RMIT Open day at Point Cook today. The instructors did a good job spreading the word on how to be a pilot, but with several hundred airline pilots also looking for work in GA, I felt that newly graduated CPL pilots are going to find it difficult to get employment in the next few years.
I got talking to three young people who were in a classroom swotting for the IREX. The talk turned to what happens once they attain their CPL. None particularly wanted to spend money on a flying instructor course, but saw the qualification as the only way to get a job. I suggested that they should consider following the CPL with an instrument rating - particularly as some employers demand a minimum of three renewals and by this measure, the earlier an instrument rating, the better.
Another student was worried about the cost of an instrument rating, quoted as $10,000. Still another wondered would he/she would ever get a job with only 200 hours. They all talked vaguely of "going up north" after graduation, as if Darwin was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I wanted to say to them get out of aviation before you send your parents broke, because currently there is only heartbreak ahead amid the red dust of the Northern Territory.
But it would have been cruel to dash their dreams of being a pilot - because in the long run, getting a job depends so much on who you know plus a lot of sheer good luck and hard study.
Fifty years ago almost to the day, I sat in a similar classroom just across the road at Point Cook where I met these young people. Then I was a trainee pilot in the RAAF anxiously studying airmanship (yes..that was a specific subject in those days), aerody, met, morse and navigation and we even learned to throw hand grenades. From the airfield came the wonderful noises of Tiger Moths and Wirraways jostling in the circuit area and the occasional magical sound of a Mustang or two slipping across from Laverton.
My flying future was assured, providing I didn't get scrubbed on the Wings test. We had full board and lodging and our training didn't cost us a cent. From there I spent 18 happy years flying everything from fighters to bombers to transports. I never had it so good, although I didn't realise it at the time.
Outside the RMIT classroom today, I heard the sound of the RAAF Museum Mustang putting on a flying display and I thought back to the day when I first flew a Mustang with only 210 hours in my log book.
Through the windows I could see a line of Cherokee Warriors. Each hour in one of these aircraft costs just under $200 to the student and perhaps even a house mortgage to the parents. And for what? At least I had a job after graduation. But the students today have no jobs to go to, only the cost of more ratings to get ahead of the mob. Fifty thousand dollars outlay still won't get you a job in GA.
How do you give words of encouragement to these starry eyed student pilots, when deep down, you know full well that their future employment opportunities in the current aviation environment is grim indeed. Does one tell them the truth, or a social lie...
I wish I knew the answer.
I got talking to three young people who were in a classroom swotting for the IREX. The talk turned to what happens once they attain their CPL. None particularly wanted to spend money on a flying instructor course, but saw the qualification as the only way to get a job. I suggested that they should consider following the CPL with an instrument rating - particularly as some employers demand a minimum of three renewals and by this measure, the earlier an instrument rating, the better.
Another student was worried about the cost of an instrument rating, quoted as $10,000. Still another wondered would he/she would ever get a job with only 200 hours. They all talked vaguely of "going up north" after graduation, as if Darwin was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I wanted to say to them get out of aviation before you send your parents broke, because currently there is only heartbreak ahead amid the red dust of the Northern Territory.
But it would have been cruel to dash their dreams of being a pilot - because in the long run, getting a job depends so much on who you know plus a lot of sheer good luck and hard study.
Fifty years ago almost to the day, I sat in a similar classroom just across the road at Point Cook where I met these young people. Then I was a trainee pilot in the RAAF anxiously studying airmanship (yes..that was a specific subject in those days), aerody, met, morse and navigation and we even learned to throw hand grenades. From the airfield came the wonderful noises of Tiger Moths and Wirraways jostling in the circuit area and the occasional magical sound of a Mustang or two slipping across from Laverton.
My flying future was assured, providing I didn't get scrubbed on the Wings test. We had full board and lodging and our training didn't cost us a cent. From there I spent 18 happy years flying everything from fighters to bombers to transports. I never had it so good, although I didn't realise it at the time.
Outside the RMIT classroom today, I heard the sound of the RAAF Museum Mustang putting on a flying display and I thought back to the day when I first flew a Mustang with only 210 hours in my log book.
Through the windows I could see a line of Cherokee Warriors. Each hour in one of these aircraft costs just under $200 to the student and perhaps even a house mortgage to the parents. And for what? At least I had a job after graduation. But the students today have no jobs to go to, only the cost of more ratings to get ahead of the mob. Fifty thousand dollars outlay still won't get you a job in GA.
How do you give words of encouragement to these starry eyed student pilots, when deep down, you know full well that their future employment opportunities in the current aviation environment is grim indeed. Does one tell them the truth, or a social lie...
I wish I knew the answer.
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: A one horse town...
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As a starry eyed wannabe, I can honestly say that the road ahead scares the crap out of me. The whole thought of finding that elusive first job is truly daunting, especially considering the hunt begins in earnest in only a couple of months. After 3 years of study/training and watching countless numbers of companies collapse, one thing has become all too apparent; aviation is a fickle industry.
However, after a good flight, or taking a look at what my mates are studying, I can’t imagine doing anything else.
However, after a good flight, or taking a look at what my mates are studying, I can’t imagine doing anything else.
An excellent bit of writing Centaurus, perhaps something all of us wannabes should read.
I almost feel like saying to myself "snap out of it, he's right, you've got no hope" but I can't because this is what I want.
I really can't think of that many other professions where you can put in so much time and effort and money for potentially no reward. As I near the end of a 3 year uni course, these events of the last fortnight couldn't have come at a worse time for me and others in my situation.
What can I do? I know for sure I won't be picking up an IT home study kit or enrolling in an Economics degree. I guess I'll just keep plugging away, hoping my time will come.
Cheers,
TL
I almost feel like saying to myself "snap out of it, he's right, you've got no hope" but I can't because this is what I want.
I really can't think of that many other professions where you can put in so much time and effort and money for potentially no reward. As I near the end of a 3 year uni course, these events of the last fortnight couldn't have come at a worse time for me and others in my situation.
What can I do? I know for sure I won't be picking up an IT home study kit or enrolling in an Economics degree. I guess I'll just keep plugging away, hoping my time will come.
Cheers,
TL
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Three Tors
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Centaurus, I acknowledge your long and obviously distinguished career. But the question/s that I have for you are this..... What, in all reality, is the "truth" that you speak of? I was/am a late starter in the industry, and have had to dig around a little bit to start those hours moving, but in all honesty isn't the real key to success (at your next goal, anyway), to bite off much more than you can chew and then proceed to chew like you know what? Can you stand there and tell me in one way or another that ALL of us aspire to airline work? Yes, I hear what you are saying when you point out that as of now the market is well and trully inundated with those much more experienced than I, and that progression will be slower than before, and that makes it all the more heart breaking for those very close to their goal seeing the goalposts moving away faster than they can reach them.
The current situation is far from ideal for a number of people that I know and have met recently, and my thoughts go out to each of them in turn. However, that is THEIR individual goal/s to go to the airlines, and not neccessarily mine, or that of many others. I guess all I am trying to say is that each of us wants something different to everybody else.
The current situation is far from ideal for a number of people that I know and have met recently, and my thoughts go out to each of them in turn. However, that is THEIR individual goal/s to go to the airlines, and not neccessarily mine, or that of many others. I guess all I am trying to say is that each of us wants something different to everybody else.
