[Peetwo]

RUFDUS feel the pinch on pilot shortage - 

Via the Oz:

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Flying Doctors ramp up pilot program

MEREDITH STAIB


The Royal Flying Doctors Service has developed a pilot mentoring program.

• 12:00AM AUGUST 23, 2019
  
  
  
• 1 COMMENT
  

If you think the only inconvenience of the global pilot shortage will be a possible delay or cancellation of your next international or domestic flight, you’re wrong.


Consider the reality of being seriously injured or ill in an isol­ated part of the Australian outback. Right now, it’s possible for the Royal Flying Doctor Service to be with you within two hours, ­regardless of where you are.
Without pilots, we cannot.

Up until now, most media focus on the global pilot shortage has been on larger, commercial airlines, and rightly so. The figures are alarming from a business and global travel standpoint — 290,000 active pilots service the aviation needs of the global population, and Boeing alarmingly predicts the need for a further 261,000 in the Asia-Pacific during the next 20 years to meet ­demand from emerging markets primarily in India and China.

It is also these same markets from which most Australian pilots are headhunted for commercial pilot roles.

The stark truth is, as a charity, we cannot compete with some of the salaries on offer.

That isn’t to say we cannot offer our pilots ­decent salaries and truly rewarding and exciting careers in aviation, but combining slightly reduced wages with the prospect of living remotely has always presented obstacles to recruitment, whether a shortage of suitable candidates exists or not.

The fact is, aeromedical and general aviation are not quarantined from the pilot shortage.

We recruit from the same three sectors of aviation as the big commercial airlines: regional airlines, general aviation and defence.

And so long as these three areas suffer, so do we — unless we shift the way in which we operate our pilot recruitment and retention.

I hold a firm belief that everyone involved in the aviation industry has an obligation to give back. Everyone must play their part by harbouring and ­encouraging young and upcoming pilots.

During the past six months, the RFDS in Queensland has actively positioned workforce sustainability at the forefront of our operations. In doing so, we have looked for the pilots who already have an affinity with the bush, who share our passion and purpose, and recruited these people into a newly developing RFDS Aircrew Mentoring Program, or RAMP.

RAMP takes young, experienced general aviation pilots from rural Queensland who may just fall short of the required flying hours to be an RFDS pilot and equips them with a 12 to 18-month sponsored induction and mentorship. In return, we expect a three to five-year period of service as an RFDS pilot once they meet the ­required standard and are checked to line.

Training pilots is not cheap, and RAMP is not a large-scale program in which we take on great numbers of pilots and train them en masse.

That is not feasible or sustainable for a not-for-profit organisation such as ours. We are limited to about two RAMP pilots each year whose training and mentorship is philanthropically funded.

Realistically, the RFDS is only a small player in the global aviation market.

But our impact on individuals and communities in Australia is undeniably huge.

And while we don’t have the resources to develop national pilot training academies, we can play our part by introducing incremental innovations to our training and recruitment efforts, to ensure we are future-proofing our business and continuing to provide a world-class aeromedical service.

Meredith Staib is chief executive of the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland).

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Plus: Fort Fumble release latest iteration of 80+ page CAO 48.1 - 

Link: https://www.casa.gov.au/safety-managemen...management

From Ironsider this am, via the Oz:

New pilot fatigue rules finalised



Commercial airline pilots can look forward to slightly shorter workdays under new fatigue risk management rules being introduced by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

After years of review and consultation, CASA has finalised a new set of rules and promised to survey the regulations at regular intervals to ensure their ongoing relevance.

Australian Federation of Air Pilots safety and technical director Stuart Beveridge said there were still some concerns that commercial considerations had been favoured over the wellbeing of pilots but they could “live with” the new rules.

“Currently pilots working under the standard industry exemptions can work up to 12 hours if they sign on before 5am,” Mr Beveridge said. “Under the new rules, that will be reduced to 10 hours.

“Some (daily flying) limits have been reduced by about two hours, others have only been reduced by half an hour depending on the time of day and number of flights they’re doing.”

He said two big “blind spots” persisted in the fatigue risk management rules, which would not apply to aerial agricultural pilots.

“CASA has decided because there’s no risk to the travelling public they don’t need to be ­included.

“Our position is the pilot’s life is still at stake and it’s also one of the riskiest sectors of the industry, that’s subject to considerable cost pressures,” Mr Beveridge said. The other blind spot related to emergency services, with exemptions in fatigue risk management granted to “urgent” operations also extending to non-urgent patient transfers.

“With one, it’s a matter of life and death but the other is not, so we believe those operations should be compliant with fatigue risk management rules,” Mr Beveridge said.

Australian and International Pilots Association vice-president Shane Loney said they shared AFAP’s concern about the emphasis on industry priorities ahead of safety.

“These regulations are very much leaving things to operators as to how they run their fatigue systems,” Captain Loney said.

That included ultra-long range operations such as those being considered by Qantas, with the new CASA rules failing to include any mention of such services.

“In our view the regulation should include specific mention of ULR and some particular requirements of CASA for an operator to demonstrate how they will safely conduct those flights,” said Captain Loney.

“That’s not written up in regulation anywhere so it leaves it entirely up to operators how it works on the day.”

Despite the omission, Captain Loney said AIPA supported Qantas’s research flights later this year designed to examine scientifically the impact on pilots of 20-plus hours of flying.

Airlines must transition to the new rules by June 30 next year.

MTF...P2