Vanguard Magazine

trAininG www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 25 "There is a shortage of pilots in the world, and every country is looking at good ways to train their pilots, that includes training somewhere else." — LCol Marc-Antoine Fecteau training on the Harvard during Phase III Advanced Flying Training. At the end of the third phase, all successful pilots from both schools are awarded their flying badges or wings. At this point, after about two years of rigorous training, approxi- mately 70 to 80 per cent of the graduates will reach the end of their training and go on to fly either a multi-engine or rotary wing aircraft. The remaining 20 per cent that started Phase III on the Harvard in Advanced Fly- ing Training will be destined for fighters and will then go on to Phase IV to begin training on the CT-155 Hawk, a Rolls- Royce turbofan engine advanced jet trainer in Moose Jaw. During the second half of this phase, students are transferred to 419 Tactical Fighter (Training) Squadron at 4 Wing, Cold Lake, Alberta to participate in the Fighter Lead-In Training (FLIT) course which focuses on tactical flying training on the Hawk. For those going on to fighter training, LCol Scott Greenough (Ret'd), a former Commandant of 2CFFTS and CAE's Pro- gram Manager of NFTC, explained the speed progression and the complexity of the training. Students first start out fly- ing at a speed of two miles a minute in the Grob, then four miles a minute in the Har- vard with a corresponding increase in tasks and complexity. By the time they move on to the Hawk, they are flying at eight miles a minute. Flying at this speed, students still have to keep an eye on the display, operate switches, and control the throttle and stick. "We are making the world go by faster and at the same time training the brain to op- erate at such a speed to take a whole lot of information in and process it quickly," said LCol Greenough (Ret'd). "That's re- ally the skill set required of a modern-day fighter pilot." After graduating from NFTC, the new batch of fighter pilots will then join their first CF-188 Hornet squadron. Filling the Shortage Canada has an internal focus to fix the cur- rent shortage plaguing the RCAF. "There is a shortage of pilots in the world, and every country is looking at good ways to train their pilots, that includes training somewhere else," said LCol Fecteau. He went on to add that many would prefer that somewhere else to be Canada, but since we are trying to fix our shortage problem the training system is running at "full capacity." Peter Fedak, Site Manager responsible for the CFTS program in Southport, ex- plained that "full capacity" does not relate to the simulators or facilities but mainly to instructors. "The key part is instructors, and as the RCAF tries to maintain opera- tional tempo and feed the schools, we are trying to tap and find instructors to train pilots," said Fedak. The decisions being made today though will not yield results for the next few years. Fedak explained that ramping up today will produce qualified pilots in about three to four years, in the best-case scenario, and up to seven years if the student does not have a degree. "The impact of decisions made now will be felt in six or seven years," said Fedak. "This is a condition that neither the school nor industry can control. It is a long process for the long term." training Through the CFTS program in Portage La Prairie, KF Aerospace is required to do a training event per day, per student, wheth- er its flight, ground school or simulation. The flight schedule is created the day be- fore with the RCAF to ensure that the re- quired aircraft is available for training. KF Aerospace has a 100 per cent availability of aircraft ready for training. "If we have 22 B412CF Outlaw flights that needed to be completed in one day, we can do that with six machines, flying four LCol Marc-Antoine Fecteau is the RCAF Commandant overseeing the CFTS program in Portage. Photo: KF Aerospace. KF Aerospace utilizes the Bell 412 helicopter for advanced rotary-wing training under CFTS. Photo: KF Aerospace

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