By Paul Clough, Solicitor 

We have a new fearless leader in Canberra. Kevin 07 and his treasurer offsider have flagged a skinflint approach to Federal spending. “It’s inflation, stupid”. Kevin and Wayne have foreshadowed a five part plan to defeat the dreaded inflation and everyone will live happily ever after. So much for the fairy tale.

The reality in civil aviation is composed of diverse factual conundrums. The cost of learning to fly is excessive. A young pilot starting out on the CPL can expect to spend upwards of $70,000 for a cold commercial which will take, at best, about 12 months.  As a youngster his/her capacity to earn funds to support his aviation addiction is insufficient.

He can get funds from parents or he can borrow them, a la HECS. Our eager young CPL pilot hits the pilot employment market. Sorry son! You do not have sufficient experience to fly our aircraft as our insurer won’t allow us to let tyros with less than 1000 hrs fly for hire and reward. Duty of Care is mentioned. Our eager young pilot then heads downmarket. He seeks any flying duty that builds those needed hours. He will do it for free whilst he holds down a job as a hotel barman/bicycle courier/employment clerk. Bit difficult as the demands of aviation will not fit a nine to five time restraint. Eventually, he gets an offer to fly real aeroplanes in the back of beyond. The pay is derisory, the aircraft are badly maintained, the flying exacting, it’s hot and he has to pay for his own accommodation in dusty outback regions or, worse, sleep in a sleeping bag under the wing of the aircraft. His boss wants him to fly overloaded aircraft, exceed his duty/flight time limitations and do all the paperwork for the flights. Naturally, CASA and the aviation bureaucracy have not missed the eager young pilot on his way through his training with charges, fees and user pays.

Our eager young pilot is on the slippery slope for a visit from CASA and a criminal record. But he has to reach the magic 1000 hour utopia. He still has the debt from his flying training. Many are called but few are chosen. Some young eager pilots endure this baptism of fire. Some give up and get a real job. Others kill themselves in the effort.

The provision of the next generation of airline, general aviation pilots come from this pool of talent. It is not a facetious observation that the pool is shallow, drying up quickly and quite murky.

At the airline end, the majors have decided that entry to the airline pilot ranks is seen as a very desirable vocation. The airlines have decided that here is a rich source of revenue. Pilots are charged fees for applying for positions, interviews and, best of all, their training on the operating aircraft. How about another training fee for the basic B737 of $60,000, secured with a financial bond over the pilot’s wage for three, four or five years?

The nub of the situation is that the sharks in the aviation industry are having a feeding frenzy. The poor young eager pilot is grist to the mill. Little wonder that the next generation of airline pilots is thin on the ground.

In the ‘Australian’ newspaper back in February this year, there was a small piece to the effect that Regional Express had suspended its Melbourne-Griffith service and postponed others as a result of the continuing pilot shortage. Is it any wonder that there is a pilot shortage when so many needless obstacles are placed in the path of the eager young pilot on his quest for a flying career? There is further anecdotal evidence that Cathay Pacific and Emirates Airlines have new aircraft against the fence whilst management tries to get qualified pilots to fly them.

Our fearless leader in Canberra has a five part plan to beat inflation and make Australia the economic envy of the world. Again, from the ‘Australian’ newspaper, these five parts are: 1) strict fiscal discipline; 2) encourage private savings; 3) invest in education and skills; 4) establish infrastructure to help relieve bottlenecks and 5) encourage workplace participation.

Your garden variety solicitor will only comment on the above from the vested aviation point of view. If our fearless leader wants to exercise fiscal discipline, reduce much of the bureaucracy that slows CASA down and remove the fruitless audits of commercial operators. Give the commercial side of civil aviation within states to the states, as the High Court has told them to do. This will reduce the commercial pressures on operators and allow them to concentrate on the thing they do best, flying aircraft.

If the fearless leader wants to invest in education and skills then reduce the impact of the user pays expenses levied on pilot training, the leasing of training fields to the entrepreneurial sector and defray some of the costs of learning to fly. The Feds provide the first home owner’s grant to buy a first home. Why not provide and incentive for a pilot to undertake his first and major work choice? In Luxembourg, the government encourages young people to undertake flying to fit them for appointment to the local airline, LUXAIR. The scheme is that the young pilot provides a third of the cost, the airline provides a third of the cost and the government provides the remaining third of the pilot’s commercial licence.

The eager young pilot goes to Texas in US of A and does a high speed CPL.  The eager young pilot returns to the airline which undertakes the engineering, performance and line training to get the eager young pilot into the right seat of an airliner.

The training captain takes over the fitting of this young mind into the airline discipline. In the olden times, that is about 1950 or so, there was a system of aviation scholarships granted by DCA for suitable applicants. I’m showing my age. Many of those scholarship holders went on to careers in the Air Force or in airlines. It can be done.

Finally, all the entrepreneurs that are now profiting from their leased infrastructure acquisitions should return some of their profits to ensure that there is workplace participation of suitable qualified young people in to the aviation industry. This could be done by bursaries, direct investment in training, provision of alternate airfield sites, development of synthetic flying establishments on leased areas adjacent to major airfields. The possibilities are endless. 

But perhaps I’m dreaming.

Watch this space…