By Kristy Gilligan 

It’s the year 2050. At Mascot airport a tumbleweed rolls across the abandoned runway and stops against a dried up fuel tanker. Inside the once bustling terminal building the only departures are emails from busy executives in their cubicle offices and the only arrivals are skype calls from overseas loved ones. If you haven’t guessed yet, this is the future of aviation as some would paint it. No commercial flights, in fact no pilots.

If this is the future of aviation as extremists would have us believe then I hold low hopes for the human race. As thinking, feeling individuals we first took to the sky with the dream of making the world a smaller place. Brothers Orville and Wilbur threw themselves across fields and painters like DaVinci sketched up wild contraptions, all in the hope of getting man off the ground.

Nowadays it seems some of us take flying for granted. We complain about squished up economy class tin cans yet want to fly across the country for under a $100. We want fuel to be cheap but insist on driving seven seat four wheel drives. Which leads me to wonder - what is it like for commercial pilots today and what will it be like in the future?

One organisation responsible for bringing new commercial pilots into the market is Airline Cadets Australia, a training and job placement organisation for the aviation industry. This type of holistic approach to training is quickly taking over because of the need to train pilots quickly and consistently. Airline cadets offer a 12 month training programme with the promise of a guaranteed 12 months work with a regional airline or charter operator. General Manager of Airline Cadets Australia, Jennette Golar says current demands for pilots have been high due to the shortage of pilots globally, in particular those trained up to airline standard.

“With the fuel situation and instructor shortages, none of us yet know exactly what impact this will have on future pilot shortages as it is still slightly too early in the cycle to predict accurately. Commentators still claim (Boeing in any case) that jet fuel prices will drop again. The earliest predictions were that the pilot shortages would last approximately five years – in reality, it’s only been around 18 months since the airlines in Australia started to feel the pilot pinch,” she said.

Water cooler conversationalists sometimes criticize the current cost of flying training, suggesting that only the wealthy can afford it which has a knock-on effect on pilot quality. Golar disagrees.

“At any time it takes at least two rounds of interviews to select those suitable for our course. Having the money doesn’t come into it as they have to be committed, intelligent, suitably presented and have the ‘fire in their belly’. Without all of these attributes we have, in the past, seen students drop out when the going gets tough. It is certainly a lot easier to recruit these days than it has been over the past ten years.”

If not a package type deal then where else are our new pilots coming from? As everyone scrambles up the food chain there are still many traditional flying schools offering a multitude of flexible or modular training options that are bringing new commercial pilots to the workplace. The regulations are set up to be fair to those undertaking a CASA approved Commercial Pilot Licence for Aeroplanes (CPLA) training course by allowing them to do so in a total of 150 hours total flying time. If not undertaking this set course then the total flying hours required is 200 with specified time spent as pilot in command, and both cross country and instrument flight.

The approved 150 hour CPLA Training Course is intended to be an integrated course of both theory and practical aviation training. This type of course also allows students to skip the step of ever being issued with a Private Licence and complete all the training required for the issue of the CPLA while holding a Student Pilot Licence. For the serious pilot looking for a job in commercial aviation, the 50 hour saving can mean a cash saving in the vicinity of five to eight thousand dollars, depending upon factors such as aircraft type and fuel costs etc.

An additional benefit of the 150 hour course is that the aeronautical experience required can be achieved in the form of additional qualifications such as multi engine ratings, night VFR ratings, aerobatic ratings and so forth.

The 200 hour CPLA option does require 50 more hours but has the added flexibility of being able to be completed where the school, or schools, attended do not offer an approved course. For example, a pilot who achieved a Private Licence many years back who has a total over 200 hours with 100 of these in command may wish to go on to become a commercial pilot. To do so they simply need to complete an assessment flight with a grade 1 instructor then, upon recommendation, go on to complete the CPL flight test. Oh and don’t forget those charming theory tests as well!

Tests, exams and flight hours out of the way there is still that little matter of finding a job. Many pilots find they have to pay for expensive endorsements in order to log hours to fulfill each company’s minimum requirements for employees. In this case some pilots spend a significant amount of time flying for free, or next to nothing. This can be viewed in two ways. The first and most positive is that companies are allowing pilots to gain experience without them actually having to shell out for aircraft hire. The downside is that, in an industry that supposedly needs pilots desperately, people are being discouraged from the career due to long periods of time without sufficient income. It’s a double edged sword and while there is no right and wrong here, someone needs to step up and fix the problem before the pilots dry up along with the fuel and aircraft.

Solutions? Perhaps government intervention and assistance, offering subsidies like those given to trade apprentices. Or, if not, to pay out at least a loan much like the university scheme where training costs are not paid back until a certain level of income is achieved.

There is also the small matter of losing many pilots to overseas airlines. While it creates vacancies in the Australian market (surely a good thing for up and coming commercial pilots), it also removes the more experienced, senior operators required to check and train. What is ironic is that we send our best and brightest overseas where the money is better while other countries send their pilots to Australia to train. For instance, the China Southern West Australian Flying College graduates over 100 cadets every year. These pilots then return to China Southern Airlines, one of the fastest growing airlines in the world.

While Australia’s economy is coming under pressure, along with other once thriving world economies, passenger flights are bound to become more expensive. This might be partly due to fuel prices and partly due to the demand for flight crews, and subsequent rises in wages. The concerns for all of us are what impact it will have on aviation. I don’t see airports becoming barren wastelands. Check in lines won’t be as painful, the airfares may be slightly more painful but, on balance, people will still fly. Business necessitates it.

For the rest of us not flying for business, the romance of flying won’t die out with rising fuel prices. Instead of flying to Bali once a year, we might stay home and take a flight to Queensland. Instead of doing so for $50, it might cost $200. (Which I remember not so long ago in the past!). 

If anything is drying up, it is our passion and commitment to making our dreams come true. There is no better champion to the human spirit than that of the beloved aircraft. Into the future we will follow in the footsteps of those Wright Brothers and keep experimenting. Somewhere out there is a bio fuel solution, a cheaper, faster aircraft and an undying passion amongst aircrews to stay in the sky.