MPL - welcome to North America....

ppragman

FLIPY FLAPS!
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http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Canada-Adopts-Multi-Crew-Pilot-License221449-1.html

Canada is joining European and Asian countries in adopting the multi-crew pilot's license as a means of keeping the right seats of its airliners populated. In contrast to the U.S., where Congress has decided how many hours a pilot must have before clipping on the tie and three stripes, Canada and the other countries are adopting an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)-designed program that takes ab initio students through at least 250 hours of airline-oriented flight training and 750 hours of ground school and makes them FOs on airliners in 12 to 18 months. Canada's Ministry of Transport announced last week that the licence will be added to Transport Canada's list of approved pilot certification standards and the next step is to start certifying aviation training organizations to teach the courses. That news comes as a war of words develops between airline executives and pilot's unions about the cause and effect of new 1,500 hour experience minimum for co-pilots (1,000 hours if they attend a university course).

As we reported last week, the Airline Pilots Association claims there is no shortage of pilots. President Lee Moak said there are plenty of experienced American pilots flying overseas who would return to the U.S. if they could make as much money as they do at foreign carriers. While that may be true, in the reality that has evolved into the airline training model in the U.S., regional airlines are curtailing their operations because they don't have enough pilots. Republic Airways mothballed 27 of its 243 aircraft last week for that reason and CEO Bryan Bedford said it will get worse before it gets better. "The short-term answer is the aviation industry is just going to get smaller," he told the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). He said the problem is double pronged. New pilots must spend much longer gaining the experience necessary to get an airline job at the same time the major carriers are hiring experienced regional pilots faster than the regionals can replace them. Bedford said that means that some marginal regional airline destinations will lose service and fares will go up as airlines increase the pay of pilots to help attract more. Bedford appeared to allude to the multi-crew pilot licence when he told the WSJ that other countries have "had to reformulate the whole vocation of the pilot" and that discussion needs to be held in the U.S. "We should have that conversation today and get ahead of it, before the problem that seems difficult today gets a heck of a lot worse," he said.
 

Is this bad? Several years ago on here were as a board were saying the European MPL school's had a strict foundation in aeronautics and were something akin to what military pilots go through to go 0 to F-18 pilot. And come out the other end a very competent pilot. Verses our pilot mills, where anybody with good credit or a good co-signer could be a co-pilot in about two years time. Verses MPL's which have stringent test and admission policies.

The only bad thing I know about MPL is the whole slavery thing. It's tuition is *free* i.e. nothing out of pocket per say. But the airline takes training cost out of your wages, once you get hired on.
 
Is this bad? Several years ago on here were as a board were saying the European MPL school's had a strict foundation in aeronautics and were something akin to what military pilots go through to go 0 to F-18 pilot. And come out the other end a very competent pilot. Verses our pilot mills, where anybody with good credit or a good co-signer could be a co-pilot in about two years time. Verses MPL's which have stringent test and admission policies.

The only bad thing I know about MPL is the whole slavery thing. It's tuition is *free* i.e. nothing out of pocket per say. But the airline takes training cost out of your wages, once you get hired on.

Call me crazy, but I am not a fan of any sort of indentured servitude.
 
Call me crazy, but I am not a fan of any sort of indentured servitude.

Yeah. Most European airlines have their own MPL academy. And the pilots are really good, skilled knowledgeable. And come out flying A320's/737's. But yep they get a percentage of their check drafted to pay everything back.
 
Yeah. Most European airlines have their own MPL academy. And the pilots are really good, skilled knowledgeable. And come out flying A320's/737's. But yep they get a percentage of their check drafted to pay everything back.
What data do you have that backs up the claim that foreign MPLs are "really good"?
 
I would hate to see that happen here. European style MPL was born out of a lack of GA or other options. We have 10 times the GA here they have in Europe and it remains a great pipeline to produce good airline F/O's. If you want to compare a European MPL to a US military 200 hour pilot then I'd be favorable to accepting such a scheme. My worry is ATP flight school will water it down with da time building program, et al, and your apples won't be oranges. So, if anyone who is a proponent of European style MCL has gone through that program I'd be more than happy to listen to the argument. But if you're an ATP guy saying "yeah, I've got that", then I'd tell you no way.
 
Am I the only one a little incensed that the article insinuated that airline pilot's wear clip-on ties? Or am I out of touch and most airline pilots wear clip-on ties?
 
I would hate to see that happen here. European style MPL was born out of a lack of GA or other options. We have 10 times the GA here they have in Europe and it remains a great pipeline to produce good airline F/O's. If you want to compare a European MPL to a US military 200 hour pilot then I'd be favorable to accepting such a scheme. My worry is ATP flight school will water it down with da time building program, et al, and your apples won't be oranges. So, if anyone who is a proponent of European style MCL has gone through that program I'd be more than happy to listen to the argument. But if you're an ATP guy saying "yeah, I've got that", then I'd tell you no way.

I agree

General aviation will starve for pilots if this passed here. All general aviation pilot jobs will be vacant. Qualifications to fly skydivers would be greater than airline FOs haha.
 
Wow. 250 hours in a sim where the worst thing that happens is you drop your bag of Funions.

Yeppers, that's a winner.

Richman
 
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