Taking Flight Education and Training for Aviation Careers (1997) / Chapter Skim
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4 CIVILIAN TRAINING FOR AVIATION CAREERS
4 CIVILIAN TRAINING FOR AVIATION CAREERS
Pages 76-113
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From page 76... ...
As the major airlines hire smaller numbers of military pilots and military mechanics, the effects are likely to ripple through other parts of the aviation industry. There have been several periods in the past when the combination of high demand for pilots and a relatively smaller supply of military-trained pilots has caused the airlines to alter their hiring practices.
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From page 77... ...
The question remains whether a training system less dependent on the military over the long run can be expected to provide the air transportation industry with the numbers and kinds of workers necessary to operate efficiently and safely. This chapter examines the assets and limitations of various civilian pathways for training pilots and aviation maintenance technicians (AMTs)
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From page 78... ...
airlines. On-the-,Job Training Both pilots and maintenance technicians can currently earn the necessary FAA licenses and certification without attending a comprehensive formal aviation education program, by passing specific tests and fulfilling other requirements.
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From page 79... ...
Flight schools that meet specified personnel, aircraft, facilities, curriculum, and other operating requirements can receive additional certification from the FAA under Part 141 of the Federal Air Regulations, but schools are not required to have this certification to teach flying. Nor are individuals required to attend a Part 141-certificated school in order to take the examinations for the pilot certificates and ratings described in Chapter 2, although it appears that a substantial majority, particularly those receiving advanced pilot certificates, do attend such schools (Blue Ribbon Panel, 1993:34~.
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From page 80... ...
Little information is available except the anecdotal kind about who pursues this route, what it costs in time or money, and how pilots trained in this way fare in the hiring process as they attempt to progress through the various stages. A few freestanding aviation training organizations, such as FlightSafety International, Simuflight, Sierra Academy, and American Flyers, provide sophisticated flight training oriented to the professional air transport pilot.
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From page 81... ...
This phenomenon affected pilots coming up through collegiate aviation programs as well and is discussed further in the section on the collegiate pathway. Aviation Maintenance Technicians The on-thejob training pathway appears to have been a more important route into airline employment for maintenance technicians than for pilots.
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From page 82... ...
The survey results indicate that most institutions only offer one or two aviation education options, rather than the full array of curricular alternatives. The collegiate aviation programs identified by the UAA survey should be viewed as a lower bound rather than a full picture of aviation-related preparation in higher education institutions.
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From page 83... ...
For all these reasons, statistics from UAA on specialized aviation education programs although the most complete picture we have of collegiate aviation understate to some unknown but likely significant degree the availability of college-trained individuals with an interest in and the qualifications for flying commercial planes. The FAA certificates maintenance training schools under Part 147 of the Federal Air Regulations (14 CFR 147~; 193 institutions were so certificated in 1995 (Federal Aviation Administration, 1995~.
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From page 84... ...
In any case, it is clear that the existing surveys of aviation programs do not provide a full portrait of aviation education in collegiate institutions and understate the training capabilities of the collegiate system. For many of the same reasons, data on the number of students enrolling in collegiate aviation programs are incomplete and almost certainly understate ac
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From page 85... ...
The council received responses to its 1993 survey from only 33 percent of its membership, which includes somewhat less than three-quarters of the certificated maintenance schools. The data on enrollments in aviation education programs in Table 4-3 and on enrollments and graduates of maintenance/avionics programs in Table 44 should also be thought of more as minima than as precise estimates.
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From page 86... ...
SOURCE: Unpublished data provided by the University Aviation Association. TABLE 4-4 Aviation Maintenance Technician School Enrollments and Graduates, Selected Years Enrollments Graduates Airframe and Airframe and Year PowerplantAvionics Powerplant Avionics 1991 8,9491,216 4,211 496 1992 8,0991,049 4,069 500 1993 6,000732 3,295 335 NOTE: Data reflect survey responses from 50 schools with Part 147 certification that have affiliation with the Aviation Technician Education Council.
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From page 87... ...
was initiated in 1991-1992. Prior to that time, somewhat different classifications were used for aviation education programs.
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From page 88... ...
Even in the boom years of the late 1980s, when airlines were hiring many new pilots and worries about shortages abounded, new-hire pilots on average had credentials greatly exceeding those of newly minted graduates of collegiate aviation programs. As best we can determine, minimum airline requirements hover around 1,500 hours of flight time and 250 hours of multiengine aircraft time.
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From page 89... ...
In response to these labor market conditions, flight schools have developed some alternative programs that shorten the time it takes would-be airline pilots to build up flight time and credentials. Both the schools and airlines sometimes refer to these programs as ah initio programs, but this terminology results in some confusion with older, sharply focused ah initio programs run largely by foreign airlines to train their own professional pilots "from the beginning"; these latter programs are not combined with general higher education and, not incidentally, are usually paid for by the airline.
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From page 90... ...
Recreational flying is often limited in other countries by the high cost of fuel and aircraft, the paucity of airports, concerns over security, and heavy restrictions on travel (Garvey, 1992:69~. The solution for many of these airlines is to produce pilots on their own, through ah initio training programs that take carefully selected candidates with no flying experience and put them through intensive pilot training courses designed specifically to meet the airlines' needs.
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From page 91... ...
Lufthansa's ah initio training program goes back to the 1950s, when the carrier faced the challenge of developing pilots in the post-World War II days after its air force had been grounded (Glines, 1990:18~. Beginning in 1967, Lufthansa began conducting its primary flight training through the Airline Training Center, then located in San Diego but soon moved to Arizona.
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From page 92... ...
Questions about control over the program and about the high costs facing students who ultimately might not be hired by the airline apparently led to an end of the full partnership approach (Glines, 1990~. The program is now run mostly by the university, and much of the ah initio training has been provided for foreign .
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From page 93... ...
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From page 94... ...
From the airline's perspective, ah initio training paid for by carriers would involve the highest initial cost, whereas military training funded by taxpayers probably involves the lowest. Pilots who come to the airlines from the military already have received extensive training and experience with flying jet aircraft; the military's training programs are rigorous and demanding and weed out candidates that don't meet high standards.
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From page 95... ...
The preference that airlines have shown for military trained pilots reflects their belief that this pathway produces high-quality pilots. One would also expect that airlines undertaking ah initio training could design programs they believe produce high-quality pilots, particularly when they can require entrants to
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From page 96... ...
Even when foreign-trained pilots have received high quality ah initio training, both their training and their work experience are attuned to a flight environment outside the United States, with uncertain implications for their readiness to fly in this country. The on-thejob training pathway would also tend to produce pilots that vary greatly in quality, because their training and experience (most of it received in nonairline flying jobs)
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From page 97... ...
Flight training at collegiate aviation institutions could, with the guidance of the airlines, be modeled closely on airline requirements, mimicking to some extent the ah initio model that prepares pilots to enter commercial cockpits after comparatively short training periods. In sum, this framework makes it clear why the military pathway, which combines low cost to the airline, rigorous selection and training procedures, and high technological adaptability, has been so attractive to the major airlines.
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From page 98... ...
As the experience of pilot candidates in the 1990s already proves, collegiate aviation programs, combined with the more advanced training offered by specialized flight schools, present individuals with numerous options for accumulating the extensive qualifications that airlines require when the labor market is tight. In the committee's view, a civilian aviation training system grounded in collegiate aviation education offers the most practical alternative to the decline of the military pathway.
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From page 99... ...
Department of Transportation by U.S. certificated air carriers, as compiled by Data Base Products, Inc.
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From page 100... ...
certificated air carriers, as compiled by Data Base Products, Inc. between the number of employees, particularly pilots and mechanics, and the traffic carried has been changing as the industry restructures to meet the demands of domestic deregulation and the changing international aviation environment.
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From page 101... ...
Still another consideration is the aircraft crew requirement. Earlier generations of widely used aircraft, such as the Boeing 727 and DC-10, were configured for three-person flight deck crews, whereas the later generation of aircraft, such as the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767, were configured for two-person flight deck crews.
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From page 102... ...
At the extreme, U.S. airlines would have the option already used by so many of their foreign counterparts, to provide ah initio training for carefully selected but inexperienced job candidates.
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From page 103... ...
Despite the existence of numerous collegiate aviation education programs, there were few examples of industryeducation partnerships, nor did the industry show much interest in influencing the direction of collegiate aviation programs. Not surprisingly, when carriers did begin to look at collegiate aviation to help avert the shortages predicted during the 1980s boom, they often found that collegiate programs offered only introductory courses, relied on old technology and equipment in their classrooms and laboratories, and had few faculty with aviation industry experience.
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From page 104... ...
TWA and FlightSafety International teamed up to develop a 30-day, $13,000 intensive transition course for pilots wanting to pursue jobs with regional carriers; this program featured loans from an independent loan company to help individuals finance the costs. Comair, a regional carrier based in Cincinnati, bought the Airline Aviation Academy in Florida to provide a 6- to 8-month, $21,000 initial pilot training program whose graduates would be prepared to enter an airline transition program.
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From page 105... ...
Professionalizing and Standardizing Training In 1990 the chairman of the aviation department at a major state university observed that collegiate aviation education was at the stage of "maturing from adolescence into young adulthood as a recognized and accepted curriculum on our nation' s campuses" (letter from Stacy Weislogel of Ohio State University to Gary Kiteley of UAA, quoted in University Aviation Association, 1990:58~. Largely ignored by industry and guided primarily by basic FAA regulations governing schools that offered training for flight and maintenance technician certification, collegiate aviation programs have developed in widely disparate ways for many years.
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From page 106... ...
is increasingly important to airlines, but flight training has typically emphasized preparing the solo pilot for the necessary FAA certificates rather than learning to fly as part of a team (Blue Ribbon Panel, 1993:2326~. In such an environment, program disparities and information gaps are not in the interest of either the commercial aviation industry, which will probably have to rely more and more on collegiate aviation, or of the students, who need the best information possible to prepare effectively to work in an industry characterized by volatility and employment uncertainty.
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From page 107... ...
Under the project, FAA would develop model curricula for the preparation of air traffic controllers, electronic technicians, aviation safety inspectors, and computer specialists. Students who completed approved airway science programs would be ranked on and selected from a separate personnel register from the ones then in use.
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From page 108... ...
· Aviation maintenance technology provision of theoretical and practical knowledge pertinent to airframe and power plant maintenance and preparation in technical documentation methods, specifications, and standards. Although the origins of the airway science program predate the air traffic controllers' strike of 1981, which resulted in the firing of most of the controller workforce, the strike no doubt increased interest in the program.
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From page 109... ...
· Development of accreditation standards: the experience of the University Aviation Association in developing airway science curricula, evaluating proposed curricula, and inspecting airway science programs encouraged the association to establish the Council on Aviation Accreditation in 1988 to ensure program quality and help improve the broader universe of aviation education programs. · Grant support for buildings and facilities.
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From page 110... ...
It will not recognize new programs, and, after a transition period during which current programs are expected to seek Council accreditation, the FAA will drop its formal recognition. Airlines and the aviation industry as a whole have an important stake in the continuing maturation of collegiate aviation education as a recognized and accepted curriculum tied to the needs of the commercial sector.
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From page 111... ...
Eight institutions had received accreditation from the Council on Aviation Accreditation for aviation education programs by June 1996. The committee recommends that collegiate aviation programs support the development of a system of accreditation similar to that found in engineering and business.
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From page 112... ...
In the time available to us, the committee could not undertake a thorough review of FAA requirements that affect the training offered in collegiate aviation programs. We did, however, become aware of several issues concerning FAA rules.
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From page 113... ...
Diversifying the Aviation Workforce A final challenge facing aviation is diversifying its workforce. We saw in Chapter 2 that highly specialized jobs in the aviation industry are still not distributed by race and sex in proportion to the representation of minorities and women in the nation's workforce.
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