Indian Aviation News
Flying tests are outdated, say trainee pilots
by Bipin Shah Self Employed
Bipin Shah 
Self Employed
New Delhi: Flying in India is flawed from the time you even dream of becoming a pilot.
The examination paper is almost tailored to make sure, they rarely succeed, even after spending close to Rs 35 lakh.
An aspiring pilot said, "I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but my eyesight is not 6/6. So, I joined commercial flying from fighter flying."
But getting a licence to become a commercial pilot hasn't been easy either for this 23-year-old. It's mandatory to complete 200 flying hours, and for this, one has to spend anything between Rs 25 lakh to Rs 35 lakh. He did just that, but is still struggling to clear his Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) exams.
"I gave five attempts. In fact, the funny part is that I scored 67, 68, just two marks lagging for getting passing marks. Maybe I am not good in studies, but if I am not good, how am I reaching to almost passing marks," he asks.
According to the test results sheet, out of hundreds of students who wrote the CPL exams in 2010, only 12 passed in one subject and for another paper out of 723 people, no one passed.
Pilot trainers say there is a flaw in the examination system. What's more is that there's nothing India-specific about this exam.
Wing Commander RK Bali said, "First of all, in the last 10-years, no syllabus was according to the Indian rule. Climatology, weather everything was missing from the syllabus."
The syllabi still quizzes students about the mechanism which helped pilots to land, which was replaced more than a decade ago.
It also talks about Two Bar VASI or visual approach slope indicator replaced by the PAPI or precision approach path indicator system way in 1999 and also a system which helped a pilot fly, which was again, replaced seven years ago.
A Quadrantal System used to decide the Cruising level of the aircraft was replaced by the Semi Circle system in 2004.
Every three months, nearly 1000 students appear for the CPL exams, a number that the Indian aviation industry just cannot accommodate right now. Ironically, with 4000 people dreaming, hoping to fly high, there are as many as 6000 trained pilots in India, grounded because they're still unemployed and looking for a job.
Mar 26th 2011 09:15
Self EmployedNew Delhi: Flying in India is flawed from the time you even dream of becoming a pilot.
The examination paper is almost tailored to make sure, they rarely succeed, even after spending close to Rs 35 lakh.
An aspiring pilot said, "I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but my eyesight is not 6/6. So, I joined commercial flying from fighter flying."
But getting a licence to become a commercial pilot hasn't been easy either for this 23-year-old. It's mandatory to complete 200 flying hours, and for this, one has to spend anything between Rs 25 lakh to Rs 35 lakh. He did just that, but is still struggling to clear his Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) exams.
"I gave five attempts. In fact, the funny part is that I scored 67, 68, just two marks lagging for getting passing marks. Maybe I am not good in studies, but if I am not good, how am I reaching to almost passing marks," he asks.
According to the test results sheet, out of hundreds of students who wrote the CPL exams in 2010, only 12 passed in one subject and for another paper out of 723 people, no one passed.
Pilot trainers say there is a flaw in the examination system. What's more is that there's nothing India-specific about this exam.
Wing Commander RK Bali said, "First of all, in the last 10-years, no syllabus was according to the Indian rule. Climatology, weather everything was missing from the syllabus."
The syllabi still quizzes students about the mechanism which helped pilots to land, which was replaced more than a decade ago.
It also talks about Two Bar VASI or visual approach slope indicator replaced by the PAPI or precision approach path indicator system way in 1999 and also a system which helped a pilot fly, which was again, replaced seven years ago.
A Quadrantal System used to decide the Cruising level of the aircraft was replaced by the Semi Circle system in 2004.
Every three months, nearly 1000 students appear for the CPL exams, a number that the Indian aviation industry just cannot accommodate right now. Ironically, with 4000 people dreaming, hoping to fly high, there are as many as 6000 trained pilots in India, grounded because they're still unemployed and looking for a job.
Mar 26th 2011 09:15
Sponsor Ads
Comments
No comment, be the first to comment.