Welcome to IAFTP
There are as many ways to teach flying as there are good instructors. And, each of these good instructors has developed special ways to guide students toward becoming safe and competent pilots instead of simply accumulating hours to a minimum standard. Until now it has been too hard to share such personal techniques beyond the local flight line. Your active participation in the International Association of Flight Training Professionals will help to change this.
Take the first step and join our free monthly IAFTP UPDATE Mailing List to keep aware of new information that has been posted to our website.
Next, if you would like to participate in our discussions, become an IAFTP Guest. Click on REGISTER at the top right corner of this page. It’s FREE!
BECOME A FULL MEMBER FOR FREE! -- Free IAFTP Full Individual Membership (a US$75 value) is extended for 2012 if you submit 5 training practices during January-December 2012.
Click HERE to submit your 2012 Individual-Professional or Individual-Associate application now.
For more general information, visit About IAFTP on the pull-down Menu Bar.
Update 2012-05
May 15: China airline recruiters visit the U.S. and hire 100 pilots. The chief pilot for training of an Indian airline stresses the need for cross-cultural training of instructors. And, a university professor in Adelaide, Australia, opens a discussion about how cultural factors impact training effectiveness. These are this month’s featured discussion articles (see below for the Training Article of the Month, A Word About Professionalism, and the Question of the Month).
IAFTP welcomes its latest Sustaining Member – Oberthur Technologies is an international leader in the manufacture and personalization of secure identity documents such as passport, identity card, driving license or healthcare cards – traditional and electronic - and associated services for both governmental and corporate markets. It offers an unrivalled range of identity document solutions that are based on its expertise in high security printing and digital technology. Oberthur Technologies is a member of the IAFTP eCV development team.
The most visited posts during April were:
“Maintaining Manual Flying Skills,” WATS 2012 by Captain Jacques Drappier, Senior Advisor Training, Airbus
“Aren’t we all professionals?” by Dr. Tony Kern, courtesy of Global Aerospace
“Is Technology Eroding Pilot Skills?” based on a discussion by the LinkedIn Human Factors in Aviation Group.
Click HERE if you would like to see a list of the most recent comments on all discussions and training practices.
eCV News:
Overheard at WATS: "... if you think there are occurrences of log book fraud and misrepresentation of licensing now, just wait until we're dealing with the requirement for 1,500 hrs and ATPs for regional airline new hires ..."
Saudi Aviation Flight Academy (SAFA) has invited the International Association of Flight Training Professionals (IAFTP) to conduct the first operational test of its electronicCV (eCV) at SAFA’s new world-class pilot training academy near Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. [Read the Press Release HERE]
IAFTP is currently offering the opportunity to purchase a paid-up 10-year membership to a limited number of organizations to ensure their priority participation in our eCV program. This should be especially attractive to those Flight Training Organizations that want to be among the first to issue the IAFTP eCV to their students. Details are in Membership. Saudi Aviation Flight Academy (SAFA) is the first organization to purchase this special paid-up 10-year membership, indicating its long-term support of IAFTP and its goals.
Other News:
IAFTP has been invited by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to participate on the role of the Flight Instructor panel of its 2012 General Aviation Safety Forum during June. The focus will be the global sharing of Best Training Practices and the issues involved.
IAFTP is a supporting organization for the Indonesia Aviation Training & Education Conference (IATEC) 2012 to be held in Jakarta during June and will present a paper on “The Need for Sharing Global Best Practices in Pilot Training.”
IAFTP is participating on the NBAA Safety Committee Business Aviation Pilot Training Project. For more information, read the article “NBAA Committee Proposing Better Ways To Train” posted by Aviation International News on 1 April 2012. The first step in this process is to gain a better understanding of current business aviation pilot training practices and issues. If you would like to share your comments on this topic, please add them to the following discussion:
What’s being done in regard to the training needs of Corporate and Business Aircraft Pilots?
CAT 3/2012 to be published on June 12th will feature this project in “Focus on Business Aviation Training”:
A number of commentators have remarked that the world’s aviation training community is “...focusing on air carrier training issues and ignoring the unique training needs of the global corporate and business aviation community.” While many aspects of the business aviation training world are common to the airline sector, including the use of FFS, automation and handling skills issues, and concerns over personnel supply and demand, the community does experience unique issues and operates in a highly specialized niche. CAT investigates the training challenges of business aviation.
Training Article of the Month
Asia Update: The Lure of Eastern Promise
Chinese airlines hired nearly 100 U.S. pilots at the Pan Am International Flight Academy’s All China Job Fair, held in February 2012. China has been openly rolling out the welcome mat for foreign pilots to help plug a gap caused by rapid aviation expansion at home plus a training system that can’t pump out new pilots fast enough. The gaps China is looking to fill are across the board so far as captain and copilot jobs are concerned, and include airline and corporate aviation work. But it’s not just numbers China wants – international standards are very much among the airlines’ and regulators’ goals. What implications does this have for our global pilot training community? [Read the Article Here]
A Word About Professionalism
A New Paradigm – The Need for Cross Cultural Training of Instructors
With the advent of new technology and the rapid pace of growth in global aviation, the biggest drawback is that training has not kept up with that pace. Ideally, technological development does constitute training of personnel for optimum utilization and safe operations of the systems. However, today it is not only the training of personnel in using the technology but training is also required for instructors to ensure the most effective imparting of this information to a new generation of personnel -- the "Generation Y". Such cross-cultural training must develop instructor competence in the communicative, behavioral and attitudinal skills required for successful interaction with individuals of other cultures. (Read More)
Question of the Month
How do cultural factors impact training effectiveness?
We have limited knowledge of psychology on a global scale but what can be concluded from the available data is that (1) cross-culturally, the human mind varies more than we generally assume; and (2) Westerners are not the norm. How does this apply to aviation? [Read the Article Here]
ASRS Callback
Intersection Incursions
According to the FAA, there are approximately three runway incursions every day in the United States. A runway incursion is defined as: Any occurrence at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and takeoff of aircraft. Different aspects of the runway incursion problem will be addressed in future issues of CALLBACK. This month the focus is on runway incursions related to intersection departures. [Read the Article Here]
For previous issues of ASRS Callback, Click HERE
New Training Practices
Click HERE to see a list of the 25 most recent training practices that have been submitted for all training categories with the most recent at the top.
Have you contributed yet? Submit a personal training practice by using our online form and, as a result, you can earn a free 2012 Individual Membership in IAFTP (see Membership for details).
Are you an IAFTP member? If so, visit the Members-Only Training Practices Database to review and rate the training practices that have already been submitted.
Why We Fly
Sometimes we get so involved with the "how" of training that we forget the "why." At some point in each of our lives, flying became a personal passion. Something caused us to say, "I want to do that" and we did. Of course, we were coached along that path by people who were equally passionate about flying.
One example of such passion can be found in a blog by David Learmount in which he received the following response to the question “Why fly?”
“As a 54 year old pilot flying big planes for a big company, I frequently ask myself why I am still doing it, and what the attraction is, especially at 3 am at 30 West over the Atlantic, plotting out a course to go around a nest of storms. A somewhat cynical response to myself, usually to atop the conversation in my head, is ‘It's the money stupid!’ or ‘It's all you know how to do you moron; you can't even change a light bulb without plunging half of Virginia into darkness!’ And then I usually develop the thoughts, and allow myself to drift back to when I was a nipper growing up in Guernsey in the 60's, and the most wonderful memories come flooding back.” [Read More]
Each month to help us visually remember Why We Fly, this section will feature links to some special flying videos sent to IAFTP from around the world.
This month we feature something a little different:
Recently there has been much discussion about automation and basic pilot skills, particularly in two LinkedIn aviation groups: Human Factors and The Next Generation of Aviation Professionals GenY:
Technology may be eroding pilot skills - chicagotribune.com
Pilot training 'dangerously outdated', warns FSF chief Bill Voss
What will a future pilot's job require?
One recent participant to the “Technology may be eroding pilot skills …” discussion posted a link to a 15-year old American Airlines training presentation that discusses the pilot’s ultimate responsibility to Fly the Airplane – view Children of the Magenta Line here.
For links to previous videos, visit Why We Fly in the Members-Only section.
Future Site Plans
Some areas of this site are still under construction which involves frequent updating. While the IAFTP Training Practices Database already facilitates the global sharing of pilot training practices and techniques between aviation training professionals, upcoming services will include a members-only forum to process content to be posted to SKYbrary (the IAFTP Members-Only Best Practices Forum) and the introduction of a special section supporting the pilot’s personal electronic CV. After your visit, if you would like to receive more information about IAFTP, please Contact Us
“Maintaining Flying Skills,” WATS 2012
