Independent GA flight schools provide 65%-70% of career pilots but a new FAA rulemaking committee report on the future of flight training ignores GA flight training and pushes for airline career-specific Part 141 schools, many associated with college aviation programs. No GA flight training groups, including SAFE, were invited to the FAA committee meetings.
"You would think if the airlines and the FAA wanted to discuss and improve aviation training they would consult the people who do it," said David St George, SAFE Executive Director. "How about CFIs, DPEs and the GA alphabet groups? But no, general aviation training was entirely cut out of meetings of the Air Carrier Training Aviation Rulemaking Committee that created this 181-page proposal (PDF) on the future of flight training."
Airline career path candidates and GA recreational pilots have very different needs and future training opportunities, he said..A new GA pilot is "captain" from day one as a pilot. Additionally, GA deals with a much more complicated, diverse, and challenging environment. "In most ways, the GA piloting challenges are much greater than the airline crewed environment and there is often no "future improvement" of continuous training the airlines require," he said.
St George noted that while he could personally do without the 'puppy mills' that train future airline pilots to minimum standards, it's the dream of a life in the cockpit that is driving the current training boom for everyone. It's a largesse which benefits every independent flight school and CFI in America, he said, and repeated the 65%-70% figure for pilots supplied by independent flight schools.
What Do You Think?
Are two separate training tracks the answer? That sounds like a sensible solution, but this issue needs to have input from both sides, GA and airline!
"Minimum training" is unsafe and unfair to GA pilots not accessing future airline standardization. And for pilots heading to the airlines, something more like the European multi-crew training might be more appropriate. Again, here is the airline proposal that would create a super-141 regulatory change.s
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