Research and write comparative article on Pilot Training Academies
Budget: £250 – £750 GBP
Am looking for an article to be written around choosing a Pilot Training Academy in Europe, the US and Australia and why the Qualitative considerations must overlap Quantitative factors in choosing the right academy to train with.
Unfortunately, post COVID, there are now many ‘unhealthy and damaged’ Authorised Training Organisations (ATO)’s that are desperate to enrol student pilots at any cost. They are therefore are saying, representing and promising all manner of things to attract new students.
There are schools recruiting students that are operating in a precarious (running on empty) state using existing pre-paid student fees as well as attracting new student fees in the hope that the ATO may be able to simply survive let alone deliver on the promises to complete the full (start to finish) training required to ultimately become an EASA, FAA or CASA certified and licensed pilot.
This puts students (as well as employees) at considerable risk.
A trickle down effect of this tight ATO operating environment can also include ATO's operating dodgy old aircraft, skipping essential maintenance and servicing and keeping service histories and maintenance records in a less than satisfactory state.
All of this may represent a potential safety hazard or outright legal safety breech but in all cases (be it financial or safety) it puts the unsuspecting aviation student at risk.
There needs to be an expose’ that takes a close look behind the scenes (a type of comparative audit of the main ATO's at least) to determine the true operational and administrative health as an indicator to the long term viability of the various ATO’s across Europe (including the UK), USA and Australia being the main pilot recruitment markets.
Given these are private organisations, it is difficult to get a proper look in to the financials but another, perhaps better indicator is typically taking a hard look at the ATO’s operational fleet.
The Aircraft type the ATO fly, fleet size and age, is usually a good indicator of the health and quality of a flight school. Coupled to this is determining what percentage of the fleet are serviceable (in service) and properly maintained.
What percentage of the aircraft fleet are owned, leased or partially leased (encumbered by a bank or other lender etc) is also a key consideration when measuring the health of the training organisation.
If one could write an article and create a matrix or graph to determine the Quantity vs Quality vs Value of each of the ATO’s fleet in each territory is a very good indicator for students to consider. By way of the ATO assessments, Europe and the UK should be combined as Europe whereas the US and Australia would need to be assessed as stand alone.
This should all lean toward helping students make a valued judgement on where and with whom to invest their very substantial course fees when deciding on an ATO and training location to run with.
Unfortunately, post COVID, there are now many ‘unhealthy and damaged’ Authorised Training Organisations (ATO)’s that are desperate to enrol student pilots at any cost. They are therefore are saying, representing and promising all manner of things to attract new students.
There are schools recruiting students that are operating in a precarious (running on empty) state using existing pre-paid student fees as well as attracting new student fees in the hope that the ATO may be able to simply survive let alone deliver on the promises to complete the full (start to finish) training required to ultimately become an EASA, FAA or CASA certified and licensed pilot.
This puts students (as well as employees) at considerable risk.
A trickle down effect of this tight ATO operating environment can also include ATO's operating dodgy old aircraft, skipping essential maintenance and servicing and keeping service histories and maintenance records in a less than satisfactory state.
All of this may represent a potential safety hazard or outright legal safety breech but in all cases (be it financial or safety) it puts the unsuspecting aviation student at risk.
There needs to be an expose’ that takes a close look behind the scenes (a type of comparative audit of the main ATO's at least) to determine the true operational and administrative health as an indicator to the long term viability of the various ATO’s across Europe (including the UK), USA and Australia being the main pilot recruitment markets.
Given these are private organisations, it is difficult to get a proper look in to the financials but another, perhaps better indicator is typically taking a hard look at the ATO’s operational fleet.
The Aircraft type the ATO fly, fleet size and age, is usually a good indicator of the health and quality of a flight school. Coupled to this is determining what percentage of the fleet are serviceable (in service) and properly maintained.
What percentage of the aircraft fleet are owned, leased or partially leased (encumbered by a bank or other lender etc) is also a key consideration when measuring the health of the training organisation.
If one could write an article and create a matrix or graph to determine the Quantity vs Quality vs Value of each of the ATO’s fleet in each territory is a very good indicator for students to consider. By way of the ATO assessments, Europe and the UK should be combined as Europe whereas the US and Australia would need to be assessed as stand alone.
This should all lean toward helping students make a valued judgement on where and with whom to invest their very substantial course fees when deciding on an ATO and training location to run with.