Qantas and RAAF pool pilots

[NM]

From news.com.au:

I know this has been bandied around before, but here is a new media report.

THE coughpits of the nation's fighter planes and commercial Qantas aircraft will be staffed from a shared pool of pilots under an extraordinary plan to combat a desperate shortage of military manpower.

 

[trooper]

The last line of the article is no doubt the most important...

Clever use of Reservists (mostly ex-regular but also Reserve trained where possible) employed by QANTAS (and VB?) is a concept widely used and succesful overseas...

Obviously we can't support the US idea of whole squadrons of "Air National Guard".. but there must be some level at which it is possible...

Not so sure about the "fighter pilots" bit - except where the airline pilot is an ex-knucklehead to start with ()...... but for tanker aircraft etc based on "normal commercial" airframes - or those similar enough? - one would hope such skill sharing would be possible...

 

[oz_mark]

Not so sure about the "fighter pilots" bit - except where the airline pilot is an ex-knucklehead to start with ()...... but for tanker aircraft etc based on "normal commercial" airframes - or those similar enough? - one would hope such skill sharing would be possible...

Certainly one would expect that the A330 tankers will exhibit a good degree of comaptibility with the Qantas A330's!

 

[NM]

Certainly one would expect that the A330 tankers will exhibit a good degree of comaptibility with the Qantas A330's!

as with the Wedgetail and the 737NG (alhtough handling may feel a little different).

 

[trooper]

Just as an aside... Saw an editorial today about this... (Daily Telegraph) which suggested that having airline pilots fly military aircraft was NOT something that there was any real experience in...

Huh? How much research went into THAT stupid comment??

Equally stupid remarks made asking how a "civilian" pilot of a military aircraft could give orders etc...

Jeez.... and journos wonder why so many people think they are clots.....

 

[albatross710]

A few random thoughts....

Perhaps the military needs to find a way to get the airlines to subsidise the pilot training of which they are beneficiaries. At the moment the financial reward goes to the pilot and the pressure is on them to exit the military in order to access that reward.

So, perhaps Qantas & VB make a contribution to air force training programs, allowing the squadrons to train more drivers. This in turn means more pilots able to be trained and ultimately more pilots available to airlines at a lower cost.

Would it be true to say that there are high bariers to entry to commercial pilot becasue of the training cost & hours? While these two barriers mean that the people whom do make it through are more determined, does it mean the airlnes get the best or the most determined?

Military pilots are chosen first on apptitude and skills - before they fly.

The airlines have to pay for pilots, whether they pay the pilots as a reward for them risking the training in the hope of getting a job or paying RAAF or someone to train more pilots.

It is a romanic notion of having a Cathay pilot just back from a week at the Hyatts LA, London & Madrid spending a month sleeping under the wing of a Caribou in Timor.