Farnborough 2008 Show News - July 15, 2008 - (Page 64) FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 ON THE RECORD— Jeff Roberts, President, Innovation and Civil Training, CAE CAE Expands Its Flight Academy Determined to alleviate a worldwide shortage of 18,000 commercial pilots a year, CAE launched its Global Academy here at Farnborough two years ago with a goal to make a dent in that shortfall. Today it has some 1,400 cadets enrolled in nine flight schools around the world, and in two years is halfway to achieving its goal of turning out 3,000 pilots a year. Last month it bought the Sabena Flight Academy with an ab-initio training school in Mesa, Arizona, and a simulator center in Brussels. “I don’t think we really anticipated just how supportive and enthusiastic the market’s response would be to the CAE Global Academy,” said Jeff Roberts, president of Innovation and Civil Training at CAE. “We’re continuing down a path of creating a global solution for the provision of pilots. Now we’re achieving a 92% success rate for candidates coming out of the program and going into employment. “We’re also getting ready to launch a couple of beta programs around the MPL Multicrew Pilot’s License” (see below). Flight training schools that become part of the Global Academy adopt a standard CAE curriculum that also involves training on CAE simulators. While some schools are owned or operated as joint ventures, others are ‘members’ able to take advantage of CAE’s reputation and marketing clout. Among them: CAE’s joint venture with Emirates airline in Dubai, a partnership with China Southern in Zhuhai, and two schools in India—one a management contract and the other a new venture. —John Morris CAE’s Jeff Roberts wants to help alleviate the world shortage of pilots. “I don’t think we really anticipated just how supportive and enthusiastic the market’s response would be to the CAE Global Academy. We’re continuing down a path of creating a global solution for the provision of pilots. Now we’re achieving a 92% success rate for candidates coming out of the program and going into employment.” —Jeff Roberts, president of Innovation and Civil Training at CAE. CAE Bides Its Time on Fast-Track MPL Licenses They’re not allowed to fly a Piper Cub around the patch solo, but they can serve as first officer on a scheduled airline flight. That’s one of the strange-but-true facts of holding an MPL Multicrew Pilot License, the fast-track qualification recently approved by ICAO that aims to address the world pilot shortage by training candidates how to fly as part of a two-person cockpit crew and skipping the timeconsuming small airplane stuff. Critics charge that safety will suffer if airlines hire first officers who have never flown solo, but protagonists maintain the skills learned in gaining a private pilot’s license in a Cessna 150 or Piper Cub have little to do with crewing an airliner, so why waste time on them? The world will need around 18,000 new pilots a year as record backlogs of airliners are delivered, according to IATA, and MPL could play a crucial role in speeding new cadets onto the flight deck. Some airlines and schools have already graduated their first classes. But not CAE, one of the world’s premier training companies. “We’ve taken our time on this,” says Jeff Roberts, president of CAE’s Innovation and Civil Training division. “I know other people have rushed out there but we have intentionally not done that. We wanted to spend a good bit of time speaking with the customers that are going to end up utilizing these cadets, trying to understand what are the key criteria, the key components to success and have we got it right? We’re trying to do this in a very measured, very responsible, very reasonable way.” CAE will shortly begin its first MPL course in Canada with up to a dozen cadets from around the world—but not the U.S., where the FAA has not yet recognized the license. They will graduate with MPLs that Roberts says should be accepted by the cadets’ own countries. “We’re about to start our beta program,” he said. “We will keep a very close eye on it and see how it progresses.” Asked if it concerns him that an MPL holder isn’t qualified to fly a simple club trainer solo, Roberts replied that isn’t what the MPL was designed to do and its success shouldn’t be measured by that one “conveniently true” fact. “I think MPL will become a way to create a competent qualified first officer for airline operations, and I use that phrase very specifically.” Roberts said. “It will become an additional way, but not the only way. The various national aviation authorities will adopt it as they see fit and to some degree I think it will become a viable alternative to a traditional ATPL or CPL course. “The MPL is designed explicitly to create an airline pilot able to serve as an effective, efficient, safe and competent crew member in a transport category airplane. It is not designed to create pilots to —John Morris fly a J3 Cub.” 64 July 15, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
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