OPEN SKIES, PRICEY PILOTS - ON THE JOB TRAINING

Apart from handsome salary paid to pilots, airline spends lot of money to sharpen flying skill of a pilot as on the job training. This article is specially prepared for new entrant to make him/her to realize the real aviation world, which will help entrant to come out with his best abilities to meet the challenges of the Sky.

(Case study of an airline - Indian Airlines)

There are three levels of pilots in an airline:
1) Trainee pilot
2) Co-Pilot and
3) Commander

A student holding Commercial Pilot's License is eligible to enter into an airline as a Trainee Pilot. As student has learned flying on piston engine aircraft, and airline flies Jet engine transport planes, initially airline will put student under Jet engine Orientation Training (JOT), The normal training period is about a year when the trainee pilot is promoted as Co-Pilot and designated as First Officer. To be a First Officer on Boeing 737, a basic Indian Airline aircraft, Airline spends about Rs.12 lakhs. Most of this heavy expenditure comes from the intensive training on ground, simulators, flying training and aviation fuel at its Central Training Establishment in Hyderabad.

From a Co-Pilot level, it takes roughly seven to eight years to become a Commander. But that transformation, according to officials, costs a lot of money. To produce a Boeing 737 commander, the basic Indian Airline aircraft, airline is spending over Rs.29 lakhs on his training, enabling him to sit on the left-hand side in the cockpit. (Commander sits on left seat in the cockpit) To be in the glass cockpit of the high technology Airbus A320, airline spends Rs. 43 lakhs on a single commander by the time he attains proficiency. When it comes to commanding a 273-seater Airbus A300, the airline has spent Rs.50 lakhs on him. Even after becoming a Co-Pilot or Commander, the pilot has to undergo periodical refresher courses to sharpen his / her skills and is the only on-the-job training where Indian Airlines invests such funds to sharpen the skills of the pilots, apart from investments in buying airplanes for airline operations.

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