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Flight instructor shortage deepens -

Via the Oz:

Instructor shortage ‘chronic’

12:00amANNABEL HEPWORTH

A shortfall in flight instructors threatens to make it harder for Australia to avoid a pilot shortage.

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Flight instructor shortage as airlines stock up on pilots

A shortfall in flight instructors threatens to add to Australia’s battle to avoid a local pilot shortage.

Amid a global rush to secure pilots, airlines are poaching flight instructors to work as pilots as they have experience in the cockpit.

An increase in the number of students has forced some schools to look at strategies including ­increasing pay and training to ­ensure they can retain enough ­instructors.

A new discussion paper circulated to the industry says that 70.6 per cent of employers have reported skills shortages, some of which are for instructors.

The paper, by Australian ­Industry Standards, says: “With the number of pilots currently predicted to increase substantially in the medium to long term, the need for qualified and appropriately skilled flight instructors, flight examiners and flight operations inspectors is also likely to ­increase.

“There is a demonstrated chronic shortage of flight instructors and flight examiners for both airplanes and helicopters. Similar shortages are experienced in other countries, with fierce competition for some specialist training skills. Multi-crew training and advanced simulator training skills are in particularly high demand.”

Australian Pilot Training ­Alliance group chief executive Glen Buckley said “there is certainly a very, very big shortage of flight instructors in the industry at the moment”.

“That’s been caused by the strength in the airline recruitment,” Mr Buckley said. “Lots of instructors are moving through the ranks a lot quicker.”

After learning to fly, many ­pilots then accumulate hours by teaching others to fly before working for carriers.

Mr Buckley said “a lot of ­experienced instructors have left the industry because of the turbulence over the last couple of years”, while younger instructors were spending less time working as instructors.

At the same time, new rules for flight instructor ratings, contained in part 61 of the Civil ­Aviation Safety Regulations, have made it “more challenging” to qualify instructors.

“What we’ve got is a drain out the top very quickly and a slower development coming in from the bottom,” he said.

The situation comes amid growing debate globally about training the 637,000 extra pilots that aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing expects will be needed over the next 20 years. About 40 per cent of that will be for the Asia-Pacific region.

University of NSW aviation director of flight operations, Brian Horton, said the school had lost about 50 per cent of flight instructors last year, who had to be replaced, to Qantas, QantasLink and the Royal Flying Doctor ­Service.

“And our numbers are increasing so we actually need an ­increase in instructor numbers,” Mr Horton said.

“It’s a big problem and everyone is having the same problem.”

CAE Oxford Aviation Academy general manager Michael Drinkall said there was no real shortage of instructors at the “grade 3” entry level, but it ­became a serious issue once ­instructors have progressed to grades 1 and 2 and have built up their multi-engine time.

This makes them much more attractive candidates for the airlines, especially if they have completed their airline transport pilot licence theory exams, he said.

Mr Drinkall said the situation could exacerbate the pilot shortage. “Our student numbers are increasing from both local and international customers. As the academy grows, we need more ­instructors to train the extra ­students,” he said.

CAE has recently opened a new training base in rural Tamworth and has 45 international students in training, with numbers set to increase during 2018 and beyond.

“There are many Asian airlines seeking training for their cadet pilots and while we have the aircraft and facilities to accommodate them we simply don’t have enough instructors to meet the growing demand,” Mr Drinkall said.

“We need to grow our instructor numbers but we are losing ­instructors to the airlines in Australia and the USA almost as fast as we can recruit them. Our average tenure for instructors when I started with CAE in 2011 was about 2.5 years. Now it’s down to about 1.3 years.”

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