Electronic CV

The IAFTP electronicCV (eCV)

It has long been recognized that there should be a way to securely document every pilot’s identity, training, experience, and certifications— a pilot’s personal curriculum vitae. It simply has never happened. However, if growth projections for air transport over the next 20 years are correct, the need for such a pilot CV will become more critical as employers turn increasingly to the worldwide pool of applicant pilots in order to achieve their staffing goals.

That thought causes many airline recruiters concern because assessing a candidate pilot’s background and experience even today is incredibly challenging. Contacting previous employers is problematic because many candidates have flown for operators based around the globe. Even when reached, the information former employers might provide is often of limited help, especially when mergers and bankruptcies make the retrieval of individual records a time consuming, costly, or even impossible effort.

Introducing a pilot’s CV

A personal electronic CV (curriculum vitae), myPilot/eCV, will be offered as a benefit to all IAFTP individual members as part of their annual membership. It will be the property of the individual, not an organization. IAFTP will issue and maintain the credential but the personal information available either on the card or through a secure Internet link shall only be accessible with the physical authorization of the individual, facilitated by the credential’s unique security features. If desired, the credential can also be issued in an ID badge format, myPilot/ID, customized for a training provider’s local access control requirements while still retaining its personal electronic CV capability. Most importantly, all information contained in this personal training and experience record will be validated by a third party.

How myPilot/eCV will work

This vision starts at the threshold every pilot must cross no matter where he or she lives – the decision to learn to fly. We’ll call our fledgling pilot, Jean.

Jean goes to a flight training facility and makes application for a student pilot license. This requires positive verification of identity and enrolling a personal biometric for identification purposes. The entire process is accomplished at a standard personal computer workstation securely linked to the IAFTP personal pilot training records database, myPilot/RECORDS.

Jean’s electronicCV is issued either in a horizontal card or hanging badge format based upon the security preferences of the flight training provider. Jean now has a personal electronic document that not only provides positive identification, but can also record key training, proficiency, and experience milestones – specific training activities, flight checks, type and number of hours flown, medical information, ratings and certifications, employers etc.

The myPilot/RECORDS database will also interact with the IAFTP best training practices database, globalPilot/BTP, to classify any training beyond minimum licensing requirements that Jean may receive.

Each time Jean attends a course, obtains a new rating, completes a physical, takes a check-ride, Jean’s personal pilot credential is updated. This process creates a chronological, unalterable personal record of Jean’s entire flying career.

Let’s examine how this compares to today’s process. First, much of this information is already being stored somewhere. It simply is not stored in a convenient, usable form for the pilot, the employer, or regulators; nor are these data necessarily stored in one place. Even the FAA’s response to HR 5900 will not come close to meeting the record-keeping needs of our global industry.

Of course there are training providers who provide training documentation for their customers (usually operators, not individual pilots). However, in many ways, this is exactly the same situation as having your personal medical records in one doctor’s office and needing them in another doctor’s office in another city or country. How many times has each of us tried to recreate our medical history when we have changed doctors or, for that matter, tried to provide “acceptable and verifiable” documentation of our flying experience when we changed employers or training providers?

Someone might ask: “What happens if Jean’s personal pilot credential is lost or stolen?” If it’s stolen, it is worthless. The data will be encrypted, protected from unauthorized access, and made unalterable. In addition, Jean will need to positively verify identity by providing a personal biometric whenever the credential is used. Of course, the data will be securely backed up on the myPilot/RECORDS database in case of loss.

In these ways, the myPilot/eCV issued and maintained by IAFTP will be the world’s most secure and functional personal electronic CV—a true record of a pilot’s entire career.