TRAINING AIR INDIA PILOTS

"Watch your speed...follow the glide slope...wings level...reduce power...overshoot...hold your altitude." This is the kind of verbal shorthand you are likely to hear on the flight deck of an Air India jetliner on a typical training flight.

As the jetliner approaches the runway, the pilot opens power and the jet climbs away. On the flight deck, the trainee pilot wipes his brow and scans the instrument panel for telltale signs of trouble. But before he can relax, the warning light begins to flash indicating an emergency. Without his knowledge, the instructor has pressed a switch to simulate a system failure to confront the trainee with an emergency he may never encounter on a scheduled flight but must, nevertheless, know how to cope with.

From the right hand seat the instructor watches the trainee pilot with a critical eye. How does he cope with the situation? Is he able to take corrective action with an unerring instinct and faultless precision? The instructor makes a note of the trainee's actions, reactions, reflexes, his responses and co-ordination of movements and the way he handles the airliner. It is gruelling test of human endurance and skill in a tense but silent drama seldom witnessed by the layman.

An Air India pilot must undergo proficiency checks every six months. No matter how many thousands of hours he has logged, he must prove his ability anew in a series of rigorous tests designed to probe his efficiency and competence. He goes back to school to 'sweat it out' and sharpen his flying skills. In no other profession does a man have to go back to school so often or pass regular tests to prove his professional ability. Doctors and lawyers can pass their examinations once and then practice for life, but not so a professional airline pilot. Because the responsibilities that rest on the shoulders of a pilot in command of a modern jetliner like the Boeing 747 or Airbus A310 are so heavy and onerous, he must maintain the highest possible standards of professional competence and skill. He can only do this by regular training and self discipline. That is why pilot training has become an essential and highly specialized part of Airline operations, requiring a carefully planned training program to give the pilot a thorough technical and operational background.

Pilot training is an unending process -- new pilots being trained as first officers, first officers as commanders and all of them returning to school for their periodic proficiency checks and refresher courses. Every time an airline buys a new type of airplane, the Pilots have to be retrained. When Air India bought the Boeing 747, the Airbus A300B4 and the Airbus A310, the crew designated to fly the type had to be trained all over again.

In view of the advanced jet aircraft operated by Air India experienced pilots having 500-1000 hours of Command experience with a current Airline Transport Pilots Licence (ALTP) or requisite qualification to obtain ALTP Licence and Instrument Rating are recruited from the Indian Air Force, Indian Navy, Indian Airlines, Vayudoot and from the open market. This requirement is constantly reviewed by the Airline to meet its expansion requirements.

In order to meet the large requirements of pilots, Air India has commenced recruiting pilots having Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) with twin engine experience from Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Academy (IGRUA) / open market, as trainee pilots. Since these trainee pilots have limited flying experience, they are given additional simulator and flight training after the completion of ground technical training on A310 aircraft.

A new pilot joining Air India will study such subjects as characteristics of wide-bodied jet transports, engines and the various aircraft systems -- fuel, hydraulic, electrical and avionics. He will go through a seven day course in high altitude meteorology, navigation and flight planning, including the Flight Management System (FMS) and the Inertial Navigation System. He will also undergo a three-day flight safety course, which includes emergency evacuation and a wet drill. He is sent to the Air Force school of Aviation Medicine at Bangalore for a four-day high-altitude indoctrination course. Here he is locked in a sealed chamber, in which pressure and oxygen are controlled to simulate conditions prevailing at jet altitudes to demonstrate to the pilot the effects of lack of oxygen on human body. At the end of the course he must appear for a technical
examination conducted by the Director General of Civil Aviation.

After the ground training, the next step is cockpit familiarization in a procedure trainer, where he learns the location of every instrument, every switch, and the operating procedures. After that he moves on to a simulator where he has the first taste of 'flying' an Airbus A300 and A310 on the ground! The simulator is one of the most effective modern aids available for pilot training. It consists of the nose section of the aircraft, complete in every detail mounted on hydraulic jacks, with a bank of computers to actuate instruments, create control responses similar to those encountered on an actual aircraft and reproduce flight characteristics of the aircraft with convincing realism. The realism is further enhanced by the visual system which projects on the windscreen a computer-generated image of an airport and its surroundings as seen by a pilot while approaching to land or take-off.

On the simulator, the trainee pilot learns everything from engine starting procedures to taxiing, from general handling of the aircraft to complicated instrument procedures, including emergencies. For 20 hours, he does these things himself and for another 20 hours he watches another pilot do the same maneuvers, the entire exercise being divided into a series of profiles each of four-hour duration. The number of profiles ranges from six to ten, depending on the type of aircraft.

With this extensive simulator training, the trainee pilot is ready to begin flight training on the aircraft. By now he is so familiar with the airplane characteristics that he almost feels as if he has flown it before. He does exactly the same exercises as he did on the simulator. The conversion to the A300 or A310 takes about three hours of flight training, after which he gets the type endorsement from the DGCA on his license.

Not until he is checked out on the route can a pilot consider himself fully qualified. A newly trained pilot will normally go as a supernumerary crewmember on the A300 or A310 and will be allowed to act as first officer only on certain sectors with a check pilot observing his performance. After he has acquired the necessary proficiency he will be allowed to go as a regular first officer route by route after flying twice into and out of every airport along the route. For a pilot training as a commander the regime is tougher. First of all he must have a minimum of 700 hours as a first officer in Air India. The essential elements of the training remain the same -- a technical refresher course, simulator and local training. But the standards of performance demanded of a commander are far higher, not merely in routine flying, but in dealing with emergencies. After the training, he undergoes extensive route checks with a check pilot for a final assessment to get his pilot-in-command rating before being allowed to fly as commander.

Apart from formal training, the greatest school for any profession is EXPERIENCE; and flying is
no exception. Most of Air India's commanders have been with the airline for 25 years or more,
having flown a wide variety of planes throughout their careers.

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