Keeping staff in this sector is a constant problem and introduces risks such as:
- experience of key personnel
- consistent standards.
Organisations struggling to keep staff may face safety issues if not addressed.
What can operators do?
To help keep staff, you should:
- train and employ your own flight instructors
- pre-employment screening process involving:
- assessment of aeronautical knowledge
- delivery of a pre-flight briefing.
- use a good training system that tracks requirement updates
- give effective training
- have an onboarding process and make sure you include all training requirements which may include:
- a complete program for standardising and improving flight instructor skills
- avoid relying on a single person and make sure there are backups for important roles
- make sure the right people are in the important positions
- offer career pathways and progression to staff.
It's unrealistic for a new instructor trained elsewhere to quickly adapt after a few flights to your:
- training methods
- standard procedures
- local practices.
This usually takes weeks and is different for each person. Experienced organisations understand this, and the costs involved to provide:
- induction training
- a mentor
- more supervision for new instructors.
You should consider how you support crew with limited experience to make sure there are no safety issues.
If your crew has low to average experience, you should consider discussing safety more openly. Operators worry about new pilots lacking airmanship skills, and the problem is worse with the high turnover of pilots.
Other options to support inexperienced crew can include:
- Start a mentoring program where junior pilots learn from more experienced ones. This goes beyond basic training and helps junior pilots gain valuable insights from seasoned pilots.
- Through mentoring and safety briefings, focus on sharing information that improves safety and prevents accidents. Discuss what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future.
- Standardise operations as much as possible by using 'airline' style SOPs. This reduces variation and crew workload. It also helps focus more on safely operating the aircraft.
- Encourage a positive safety culture to help crew feel comfortable raising concerns. This way, the crew can make better risk-based decisions with your support.
What are we doing and delivered?
We introduced the Stay OnTrack series of booklets. They help pilots who are flying under visual flight rules (VFR) become familiar with a specific region.
We have also produced further guidance material to help operators understand and meet the rules.