Proficient Pilot: CFIs MIA

The demand for pilots is increasing for two reasons. Increasingly more pilots are reaching the mandatory retirement age of 65, and the airlines are expanding their fleets. There is, however, a third reason for the shortage. In 2013, the FAA substantially increased the minimum requirements to qualify as a first officer (co-pilot) on a U.S. air carrier. This was partially in response to the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 near Buffalo, New York, in 2009 (the last fatal crash of a U.S. airliner). Instead of needing as little as a commercial pilot certificate with only 250 hours logged, new applicants now must have an airline transport pilot certificate (ATP) and a minimum of 1,500 hours (with exceptions).

As someone retained to conduct an in-depth study of the performance and backgrounds of the pilots involved in the Colgan crash, I can state emphatically that these increased requirements would not have helped to prevent the Colgan accident. This tragedy was not caused by a lack of experience. It was caused by incompetence. The captain was incompetent, as was the airline for having hired and retained him. His record of failures was alarming.

As a matter of fact, I cannot think of any U.S. air carrier accident in the jet age that would have been prevented had these increased requirements been in effect. Nevertheless, they are contributing to the pilot shortage because they discourage many who cannot afford the substantially increased cost of obtaining the required training and flight hours.

Perhaps the most popular and expeditious way to build flight time is to work as a flight instructor. In some cases—and perhaps many more than we realize—flight instructors eyeing an airline career perform a disservice to their students because they are not as dedicated to the business of flight instructing as they should be, thus shortchanging their students. And when these usually young CFIs obtain the necessary flight time, they’re spring-loaded to jump off to the big leagues, thus leaving their students and flight schools high and dry. The result is an increasing shortage of flight instructors.

There is, however, a large pool of potential instructors that could be tapped. These are the thousands of airline captains forced to retire at age 65. Many of them miss flying and would consider returning to the game.

Think about it. Wouldn’t you love to obtain instrument training, for example, from someone who has been there, someone with tens of thousands of hours who has actually flown through blizzards, shot approaches in pea soup fog to Cat III minimums, coped with frontal systems of all sizes and shapes, and knew all the while how to do it safely? Wouldn’t you love to tap the wisdom of such a pro?

The industry—perhaps with FAA assistance—might consider developing a recruitment program to convert some of these professionals into flight instructors (particularly those with general aviation backgrounds). It would be important, I think, to incentivize them by creating a more direct and less tortuous route to the flight instructor certificate. After all, these people are already experienced instructors because of having spent decades instructing and coaching their first officers. (Yeah, I know. Not all airline captains are good instructors. I could tell you some horror stories along those lines, but that is a column for another day.)

Such “senior” instructors have so much to share, and they could provide their students with more meaningful experiences.

In the meantime, there currently are many instrument flight instructors (CFIIs) who have never even been in actual IFR conditions. Seriously. Many of them were trained at desert airports in the Southwest, for example, and don’t even know what a cloud looks like. I’m obviously exaggerating, but when weather moves into these desert areas, you don’t want to be in a small airplane. Conditions can change from beautiful to violent in a flash. There is rarely a benign layer of stratus there to practice actual arrivals and departures. You’d also be surprised how many instrument ratings and ATP certificates are issued to pilots who have never been in actual conditions.

One of the most frightening experiences a new instrument pilot can have is penetrating weather and shooting an approach for the first time and when alone. It’s spooky. Training from a retired airline captain could ameliorate that.

Web: www.barryschiff.com