How to get your wings

Article originally appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald My Career section on February 20, 2008 and as an edited version entitled "Wing beneath their wings" in The Age My Career section on March 8, 2008.

Demand for trained pilots is soaring reports Justin Wastnage


In his portrayal of infamous conman Frank Abagnale Jr, Leonardo DiCaprio confidently strides through an airport lobby with armfuls of adoring female flight attendants. Catch Me If You Can may have been a movie, but it paints a popular cliché. Add to the glamour the prospect of earning the equivalent of an outer suburb house in a year and it’s easy to see the appeal of becoming an airline pilot.

Given this, Ian Woods, president of the Australian and International Pilots Association says he is surprised aspiring pilots are not “crushed in the rush”. Yet there are only 350,000 pilots worldwide, woeful when compared with other occupations with the same earning potential, says Capt Woods.

This shortage is getting more acute as air transport grows and all airlines are fighting each other to find crew, Capt Woods says. The emergence of low cost carriers like Tiger Airways is only exacerbating the problem. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing estimates a further 10,000 pilots will be needed globally over the next 10 years to meet demand.

What puts most off is the cost of getting an Australian Commercial Pilot's Licence, usually at least $60,000.

Mostly people pay their own way. The sponsored cadetships offered by airlines in the Catch Me If You Can days (not that Mr Abagnale ever actually trained as a pilot) dried up in the 1990s, due to shareholder demands. Instead aspiring aviators usually either save or take out loans to pay for basic flight training in light aircraft followed by advanced training flying twin-engined planes and learning all the complex cockpit instruments. Most do so because of a passion for flying rather than earnings potential.

Virgin Blue pilot Rob Hoey is a classic example. He first caught the aviation bug growing up in Papua new Guinea. “My parents were pioneers [missionaries] in the remote areas of PNG and we used to have to fly into tiny grass strips and around mountains in small aircraft,” he says.
After high school and having initially trained as a mechanic, Capt Hoey and his wife both poured their salaries into flight school for two years to allow him to fulfil his dream.

The first job was for NG Air, an Aboriginal-owned air service for remote communities, based in Alice Springs. Flying into Australian communities completely reliant on air services led him back to Papua and the job with Mission Aviation Fellowship that had inspired him so much when he was younger.

Family commitments brought Capt Hoey back to Australia, where he worked for several airlines before ending up at Virgin Blue in 2003. After working his way up from Cessna light aircraft through 19-seat turboprops and large Boeing 767 jets, he has recently transferred to the new sporty 76-seater Embraer jets on the Canberra to Sydney route, the handling of which has reignited his passion for flying, he says.

This is a fairly typical progression up aircraft size, so regional airlines are feeling the pinch worst as their pilots are snatched by larger jet operations. Some, like Queensland’s MacAir still attract pilots seeking a lifestyle change, says its managing director Kevin Gill. But others are suffering.
Sydney-based Regional Express (Rex) has taken matters into its own hands and is offering the first paid-for cadetships in years. “Rex recognises that the high cost of flying training is a major obstacle to many young people who desire to make a career in the sky” said Jim Davis, Rex chief of staff at the launch of the program.

Rex Spokeswoman Danielle Ross says the regional airline, which will pay for either half or all the training costs depending on merit, received over 1000 applications for the first intake of 20 places, with “the brightest academically,” selected.

For others wanting to be a pilot, the gold standard is still the Qantas cadet pilot program, despite being entirely self-funded with no guarantee of a job. But the airline has partnerships with Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne and Brisbane’s Griffith University to combine practical flying training with theory, making the courses eligible for federal higher education loan programmes. An aeronautical degree like this also equips candidates better for the redundancies the aviation industry periodically experiences. Despite the $120,000 price tag the Qantas scheme is inundated with applicants, chiefly because its pay rates are among the best in the industry. But Qantas is also establishing a training college that could produce 300 new pilots every year, benefiting other airlines as well.

Most pilots will still follow their hearts and the advice of aviator and entrepreneur Dick Smith, whose advice to wannabe pilots is to “head to the Northern Territory, work in a hangar for nothing and eventually you will be noticed and be able to get your [flight] hours up.” Not quite DiCaprio territory.

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