In a recent newspaper article, Works and Transport Minister Sadiq Baksh was quoted under the headline "Pilot Shortage Looms" as having said that he was "moving quickly" to avert the shortage and have more nationals trained as pilots.
The operative words here being "moving quickly", like in moving quickly to hand over the new airport, moving quickly to put an end to the Common Entrance examination, moving quickly to pave the savannah, and the most recent quick move being the attempt to make a large roundabout through Long Circular Road, Rapsey Street and Barbados Road.
"Local airline operators will need to hire about 200 pilots in the next four years" said the Minister. The problem is whether the Minister has been cued in to the number of hours, not to mention money, intensive and extensive training programmes, which all contribute to a productive and fully operational commercial pilot who is capable of upholding the national airline's safety record, which is top of the line.
Captain Eric J Mowser, a former BWIA pilot and General Manager Flight Operations, one of the pilots who has contributed what seems to be a lifetime towards maintaining the standards and professionalism of the local pilots, agrees that "BWIA will need pilots in the near future because of the retirement of many of the company's senior pilots and as well the expansion of its services. Also Air Caribbean is expanding and will need pilots, as well as replacements for senior pilots who will be taken by BWIA. But the government cannot give it a shot in the arm like that, it has to be something which is a long term plan. And the biggest hiccup is where is the money coming from, it costs about $200,000 TT from the private licence to the commercial pilot's licence."
Captain Mowser, who since his retirement from BWIA 16 years ago, has worked on contract to BWIA, Air Aruba and Air Caribbean, wonders "where does the Minister hope to find 200 dedicated men or women at the drop of a hat. We have always before depended on men who had a lot of ambition, not those who see uniformed pilots walking out to the aircraft followed by six good looking chicks and say that is the way to go. And what about the money. The Minister refers to a private sector support programme, but if you are a businessman, why would you put your money up to make someone who is not your family a pilot. It costs lots of money to bring a pilot to the productive stage."
One senior BWIA pilot is totally in favour of Minister Baksh's "soft - loan arrangements for those (pilots) who have been accepted in the recognised training institutions. "We must start somewhere and not because something sounds difficult, we mustn't do it. I would really like to see the young person who doesn't have financial resources or the parent who can afford flying, but has the ability to go to flying school, able to achieve his/her lifelong dream. Right now there are too many who are pilots because their parents can afford to send them to flying school, so I agree with the Minister's point that government should give assistance to any suitably qualified person to assist them in achieving their life's ambition. The question of the Minister's time- frame is another matter."
This brings us to the 200 committed individuals who return from flying schools either in the United States, Canada or England, after about a year on the soft-loans, and with a minimum of five O levels and the commercial pilot's licence, are accepted by the national airlines. The student must then study for the local licence, which could take another couple of months. As you can see this very point- of-entry basic training has already eaten into the Minister's time frame, and a operational commercial pilot you do not yet have. Commercial Licence and light aircraft hours in hand, the pilot must convert to the local Instrument Rating, more costs and more time again. "It takes about 18 months to two years to train a pilot from scratch" interjected Captain Mowser "to make him/her qualified to sit in the right hand seat on a local airline."
The pilot is now on the airline's payroll, but must go through six weeks of ground school to gain technical knowledge of the aircraft they are going to fly; another two to three weeks of simulator abroad incurs more costs and time; and now and only now will that student pilot get his/her hands during route training of another month or more, on the aircraft they will fly.
And let us not forget that there could be the "letter of having reached the limit of their potential" as my old boss Captain Keith Maingot called it, when a pilot failed to make the grade at any point of the training programme. So there is no guarantee that the 200 will make it to the final point.
An option which is to be fully explored and rehabilitated is the training school which operated at Wallerfield some years ago. the Caribbean Aviation Training Institute (CATI). "Certainly if we are asking people to put money into this programme, that is the way they should think" says Captain Mowser. "Some very good pilots came out of that school started by Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, Trinidad and Guyana, but when the money was not forthcming they closed it down, but it did provide quite a few pilots to BWIA."
My senior pilot source is not sure "whether it is cheaper to start from scratch at a CATI type flying school or send the trainees through the normal foreign system."
The rank achieved through the above course of training, does not include that of captain. "No way will you be a captain in two years" says my source "the cost of training a captain from scratch is prohibitive, so you have to train as a co-pilot, spend a few years in the airline and then be promoted to Captain. All the training in the world, can't just produce a captain without taking him/her through the ranks. You are talking about 5,000 hours to fly the wide-bodied L 1011 in command; 4,000 for the MD80 and 737; and 3,000 for the Dash-8.
But in the course of time, the supply of captains will sort itself out." "BWIA", says Captain Mowser "is something which this country can be proud of as whatever happened standards never did drop and standards must be kept up now. It is not only the pilots but engineers and a lot of people put in a lot of time and all contributed to the high level of safety in the operation and service as well."
Some of those who should be recognised at the time of opening of the new airport for their commitment to an airline which has a world safety record, include the late Captain Junior Farfan, his brother Captain Esmond Farfan, the late Captain Keith Patrick Maingot, Captain Fred Hamer, Captain Phil Kelshall, Captain Johnny Purchas, Captain Ian Perreira, Captain Sonny Steele, and of course Captain Mowser.