APTS Conference
20 February 2006
Reported by John Bent, Director Aviation Solutions Asia
APTS CONFERENCE - SINGAPORE
An all-day training conference (APTS) was held in Singapore on the day prior to Asian Aerospace 2006, and was very well attended.
Mr. Norman Lo, Director General of the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department, opened the conference and remained all day with senior staff, indicating the importance attached to the conference content in the context of high growth projections in Asia. Hong Kong was the only regulator represented, except for Robin Tydeman the head of UK CAA Aircraft Accident Investigation Branch, who advised the conference that in UK 278 ATPLs are lost per year and only 150-200 gained through newly licensed pilots. These numbers were a statistical fact, and in his opinion representative of global trends.
Growth projections varied, but all numbers shown for Asia were "huge". The clear and consistent message was "we have a serious human resource shortage" in Asia. Although the conference focused on pilot production, the story for maintenance and ATC personnel is similar.
Pilot selection was flagged as a key issue. CTC (UK training provider) experiences 3% pilot pass rate in selection, and Cathay 2%. "lowering the bar" is not an ideal option for selection, as the average experience level on flight decks reduces. Failure downstream in the system is expensive, and system risk increases.
MPL (multi-pilot license) as proposed by ICAO, was extensively discussed, as a solution for the production of pilots who are more "airline-ready" The primary change within MPL is to focus training more on airline pilot tasks, with less single-pilot light aircraft flying, and more simulator training in a multi-pilot crew settings. Modern threat and error management training is key within the ICAO MPL recommendations.
Keith Morgan, MD Flight Training Adelaide, (supplier of pilots to Cathay, Dragonair, and Qantas), brought fresh perspectives on MPL from a just-completed MPL conference attended by five airlines and five regulators.
Uncertainty was expressed as to the detail of the MPL syllabus, and the point was made that MPL is aimed at a combination of reduced delivery time and cost, without a reduction of standards.
Some conference quotes related to MPL:
Training at any cost does not make sense.
Today’s ab initio product is not adapted to the technology of the aircraft used in the current air transport environment.
A more rounded set of knowledge and skills is required; not just stick and rudder skills.
A very careful analysis is required by regulatory authorities.
Legal provisions are required by individual states to cater for the MPL.
MPL could start within six months but that requires better leadership and guidance from the regulators.
The recent launch of a TRTO (type rating training organization) similar to JAA, was outlined by Graeme Ogilvie (DFO of Air Hong Kong). The benefits of TRTO in Asia would be to enable higher quality, more objectivity, and standardisation of training processes across regulators in Asia. The resulting harmonization would help to address the huge training demand ahead.
A serious shortfall of competent and experienced instructors was identified. When improved processes are under construction, effective instructors are even more critical in the training system. Instructors cannot be produced in a hurry, but Airbus promote a 14 day instructors' course to customer airlines.
Deficiencies in aviation English are being addressed by an English language proficiency examination mandated by ICAO from March 2008.
The conference did not attempt to formulate an optimum set of solutions to address the huge forecast growth ahead, but all agreed that the need is extraordinary, and that steps in the selection and training area must be taken quickly.
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