Flight Dept 2 JULY.qxp_Finance 22/06/2022 10:43 Page 1
FLIGHT DEPARTMENT MANAGEMENT
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COURTESY OF FRASCA
How BizAv Can Plan for Long-Term Pilot Proficiency What can flight departments and flight training providers be doing to promote long-term pilot proficiency? Mario Pierobon spoke with FRASCA’s Randy Gawenda to find out his thoughts…
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or corporate flight departments it’s vitally important to manage both the initial and recurrent flight training well. Business aircraft operators need to be as proactive as possible to manage the availability of training slots, to source instructors, and to plan for proficiency in the long-term. “During Covid, pilot shortages and the rapid turnover that can result meant the level of uncertainty and difficulty in planning has never been higher,” notes Randy Gawenda, Business Development Manager at FRASCA. “The coordination and scheduling of slots can get derailed very quickly due to time constraints with ‘onboarding’ new hires. Everything takes longer right now, so getting as much paperwork completed ahead of time can
64 Vol 26 Issue 7 2022 AVBUYER MAGAZINE
help,” Gawenda says – though admittedly he says this doesn’t solve the major challenges. During the Covid pandemic, international training was heavily impacted with significant cutbacks. Indeed, according to Gawenda, it was almost non-existent in some cases. “But even prior to the pandemic, international operators were having significant issues getting new hires to training, due to some of the United States’ foreign flight training policies,” he argues. “That really hasn’t gone away. While recurrent training has traditionally tended to be more stable and predictable, even that has grown more complex as the operators try to fill their ranks.” While larger flight department may have more elasticity,
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