Crash course in pilot training set to take off shortly

The government intends to establish a new training method for airline pilots that will rely more on flight simulators and less on actual flying time, thus greatly reducing the hours needed to train airline pilots.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Tourism says the training system will help mitigate a looming pilot shortage and allow pilots to stay abreast of the latest aviation technology.

Once issues concerning safety and experience standards are solved, the ministry will move to revise the Aviation Law for the first time since it was enacted in 1952. In anticipation of the change, Japan Airlines Corp. (JAL) launched a preparatory task force this April.

Some captains in service at JAL and All Nippon Airways Co. (ANA) voiced high hopes for the new training system.

"The system offers considerable flexibility and is certainly worth considering," said one captain said.

Another captain urged a cautious approach: "The program should be developed as a system to implement safety and enhance skills, rather than as a system that cuts costs and saves time."

There are currently two ways to become a commercial airline pilot. One is to graduate from the Civil Aviation College and seek employment with a commercial airline; the other is by joining companies that have in-house pilot training systems, such as JAL or ANA.

Both approaches require about two years of study before a trainee earns government certification as a commercial pilot. This is followed by additional training, including flying a plane guided by instruments only and flying actual airline routes. Finally, the pilot is allowed to take control of a flight in place of the captain.

Requirements for a commercial license include 200 flight hours at the controls of an actual aircraft. However, Japan has few airports that can be used for flight training. JAL and ANA dispatch their trainees overseas for more than a year so they can earn the necessary flight hours flying small-size aircraft.

With baby-boomer pilots hitting retirement age, the airline industry is experiencing a pilot shortage, losing more than 200 pilots each year. Airline companies are intent on training new pilots, yet many find the traditional training method, which is heavy on actual flight time, expensive, inefficient and time-consuming.

Furthermore, most planes used by airline companies are high-tech aircraft flown by a crew of two or more. Because the instruments of multi-crew planes and solo-pilot planes are different, solo-flight training using small-size aircraft does not correlate directly to commercial flying.

The framework for the planned program is known as the Multi-Crew Pilots License. The MPL was approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a U.N. organization for airline safety, as a new qualification in 2006. Germany and Australia are among countries that are also moving toward adopting the MPL. The MPL certificate differs from a private pilot's license in that it is limited to training professional pilots who fly commercial jets only.

The objective is to provide training in a multi-crew cockpit simulator from the onset, while cutting down on actual flight hours. The pilot trainee learns how to fly an aircraft as a team, and receives certification when he or she has attained a certain level of expertise.

Some captains are optimistic about the changes: "It is quite possible that we will end up with a much better training system," said one.

On the other hand, there was concern over slashing actual hands-on flying time in a small-size aircraft. "It provides valuable experience in honing the actual sense of flying and risk avoidance techniques," one pilot said. (IHT/Asahi: May 21,2008)