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Training Planning

Training Planning

Based on inputs from the manpower plan, new crew gets hired or upgraded from existing position. Crew Positions typically include 01 Captain or Commander (CP) and 01 First Officer (FO) along with Cabin Crew (based on the airline’s service and seat/exit door configuration).

Example: An airline needing more CP and FO, the airline may hire new FO and upgrade existing senior FOs meeting the eligibility criteria to CP or decide to hire direct CP from external sources.

Initial Training

Initial training can be defined differently for different category of crew:

  • External Hiring
    • Rated Crew – Crew having a rating of the same aircraft flown.
    • Transition Crew or Non-Rated – Crew having a rating of another aircraft flown
    • Cadets or Junior First Officers – Crew hired by the airline with a basic type rating with zero flight time experience.
  • Internal Upgrade
    • Internal Senior FO having on type experience.

Training of such new crew are referred to as Initial Training. Syllabus of such crew are defined in the Company Operation Manual Part D approved by the regulator having a series of ground classes, simulator sessions as well as line training flights with specified trainers.

Once crew is line released to fly solo after completion of initial training, they are required to undergo recurrent trainings as specified in the company Ops Manuals as approved by regulator.

Recurrent Training

Below trainings are defined as recurrent trainings which a crew must undergo in regular intervals as defined by the airline in the company Ops Manuals as approved by regulator:

Ground Training

These could be done as contact classes, virtual or electronic or e-learning as approved:

  • Annual Recurrent or Annual Refresher
  • Aviation Security (AVSEC)
  • Dangerous Goods (DGR)
  • Drills
  • English Level Proficiency (ELP)
  • Crew Resource Management (CRM)

Simulator

A machine designed to resemble an aircraft’s cockpit, with computer-generated images that mimic the pilot’s view and the aircraft’s motion, used for training pilots. They are approved by the regulator for the airline’s usage for training and checking proficiency of pilots on different life like situations.

  • IR
  • PPC (also known as OPC)

Line

Training done on flights are called line checks.

  • License renewal route check or Annual Line Check or Annual Line Route Check (ALRC)

All such trainings have defined dates of expiry before which they need to be replanned to ensure crew are always qualified for flying. Such an activity is called tracking and planning of expiries.

Except simulators, trainings for Cabin Crew also have the same components with cabin-specific syllabus.

Based on the manpower plan of how many new and recurrent crew may be required for trainings, the training team needs to assess availability of resources such as adequate trainers, classrooms, and simulator devices in relation to the needs.

In addition to the recurrent, based on new aerodrome or new training introduction, the training team also needs to plan qualification-specific trainings as required by the operator or the organization.

Special Operations Training

Scenarios requiring special training are known as special ops trainings. Some scenarios are as below:

  • Aerodrome qualification is defined as per the standard classification done for all airports into Cat A, Cat B, Cat C with Cat C being the highest criticality airports requiring higher training syllabus. The syllabus could include ground, sim and/or line training as per criticality.
  • LVO and CAT – qualifications for preparing crew for low visibility takeoff and landing in fog window, which requires specialized training for crew to qualify them for CAT II/III Operations based on airport compatibility. Airports are also categorized as per CAT I, II and III with III allowing for landing in the least visibility situation.
  • AWO (All weather operations)
  • RNP (Radio Navigation Procedure)
  • STL (Supervised Take-off landing), etc.

“Gap in Flying” or Requalification Training

Crew having a gap in regular flying needs to undergo additional training before becoming current in flying. Such gaps are defined in OMD along with the quantum of trainings to be done before operating a flight.

Upgrade Training for Pilots

  • Command Upgrade
    • First Officer to Captain
  • Trainer Upgrade
    • Captain to Line Training Captain
    • Line Training Captain to Instructor
    • Instructor to Designated Examiner

Upgrade Training for Cabin Crew

  • Cabin attendant to Lead Crew
  • Lead to Check Crew
  • Any other special qualification as required by the airlines

All the above trainings may include ground, SIM, line training syllabus as approved in the OMD by the regulator.

Trainer Type and Privileges

Below are the different trainer types:

  • Pilots
    • Examiner
    • Instructors
    • Check Pilots or Line Training Captains
    • Any other specific training example CRM Trainer, ELP Trainer, etc.
  • Cabin Crew
    • Check Crew
    • Any other specific training example CRM Trainer, ELP Trainer, etc.
  • Ground trainers
    • SFI/SFE – Synthetic flight instructor/Synthetic flight examiner – Pilots conducting only Simulator duties
    • Other Non Pilot technical ground instructors

Based on all of the above trainings, trainer manpower is calculated like crew manpower plan having more assumptions of new training expected, increase/decrease in training pipeline, training disruption trend analysis, training expiries, etc.

Planning of Trainings in Rosters

Based on the airline’s processes, there are multiple ways of planning training:

  • Training planned as a pre-assignment and given further for rostering of flights, standby, off, etc.
  • Training as part of global assignment to achieve higher efficiency based on crew availability.

While planning training below KPIs are kept in mind:

  • Coverage of expiries to ensure all line crew are and remain qualified and available for flying.
  • Ensure the release targets as per manpower plan of newly inducted crew are met
  • Sufficient qualified crew as per the need of the schedule
  • Sufficient trainer availability to achieve the trainee release targets as well as other training needs