What Does an Airline Want in its Pilots? – Part 1 of 2

By Captain Chris Kriechbaum (Retired), Former Manager Air New Zealand Jet Recruitment.

This is Part 1 of a Two Part Blog

 What does an Airline want to see in its pilots? This is always the question aspiring pilots think about as they progress through a career in aviation. Equally though an airline wants to know what they want in a pilot they employ.

Captain Chris Kriechbaum

A number of years ago the then four airlines within the Air New Zealand Group (Eagle Airways, Air Nelson, Mt Cook Airways and Air New Zealand mainline) merged their recruitment processes, the new process was called Recruit to Group or R2G as it was shortened to. The very first step in the design was the formation of a list of competencies that established ‘what’ the airline wanted in its new pilots. The next step was to design tests or activities to measure those competencies. This blog will focus purely on the competencies and not the tests/exercises.

As the pilot manager responsible for Jet pilot recruitment, I was intimately involved in the construction of the R2G process. In this blog I’ll share the skills we looked for when we ran recruitment boards and suggest some possible strategies for improving yourself on the way through your journey.

Some aspiring pilots have in the past focused purely on how many total hours they may have, how many PIC hours, how many 2 engine hours, how accurately they can achieve a smooth landing or how accurately they can fly an instrument approach, - things like that. Though most of that thinking isn’t incorrect in itself, one has to think now more about the soft skills a pilot needs or what the airlines call non-technical skills.

Airlines hire future leaders so they want pilots who are team players, good communicators, people who follow procedures, people who know how to manage their workload, who are self-motivated, those with a solid level of maturity, people who enjoy doing things outside of aviation, those who know and understand themselves, people with high integrity.

They also want pilots who understand the airline business and where pilots fit in within it. They need to understand the challenges that are involved in the industry and how they, as pilots, can effectively contribute to it.

Well you say, that looks like a really long list, do I almost have to be perfect you might ask!!

Agreed it looks a bit daunting, but as an aspiring pilot take a look at each competency and then analyse what you need to do to aquire some level of aptitude in each of those non-technical skills.

Join a team. That could be a sporting one, it could be a supermarket role, a restaurant job or join a band or orchestra. Lots of both work and recreational activities use teams. What this means is that you will build your communication skills, your team working skills, you will expand your interests outside of flying, it will build your maturity. That’s a few of the attributes knocked off right there!

Do some overseas travel, it will give you a perspective of where you fit in the world. It will build your maturity, it will expand your interests outside of just flying, also. You will most likely have to fly to your destination, so look at each travel experience and start to take notice of how an airline runs. Observe what works and what doesn’t work so well - especially when there is a disruption.

Reflect on who you are and how you react to certain things! Use the people you like and love around you to give you feedback. When a situation arises that may be a bit out of the norm, think afterwards on how you responded. If you get some information from others about your responses, be prepared to amend your way of thinking and behaving to something similar in the future. Be prepared to admit when you are wrong and learn how to address difficult situations when they arise. All of this will help you to get to know yourself and understand what your strengths and weaknesses are and how you can change things in yourself for the better.

The journey of a pilot is one of constant self-improvement. If you want to command a large airliner one day you have to be able to manage a large crew and all the scenarios that come with operating across the world, often through the night, with a large number of passengers. Learn to ‘stand tall’, speak up appropriately in situations, this will build your credibility and respect. Realise that in problem solving situations there may well be information required to be obtained from multiple sources. Learn how to prioritise tasks and information. Try to work systematically through issues when a problem arises. Seek input from those around you, remember you will make a better decision working as a team than you will by yourself, it will take longer but you will get a better outcome.

Well here we are, back talking about teamwork again. Question; “what does a person actually do when they are a good team player?” Here are some answers and they all come out of the competency document addressing teamwork that Air New Zealand uses when it recruits new pilots. The actual competency is indicated by using italics.

• They establish an atmosphere in the team for open communication. This can be done simply by asking team members about themselves – ‘how’s your day been?’ ‘traffic getting to the airport today was bad wasn’t it?’ When someone offers an input acknowledge that, even if it may not be actually totally appropriate. ‘I hadn’t thought of that, thanks’

• They build relationships with co-workers, team mates, crew. Its not hard to take an interest in others around you.

• They give clear and precise information. Practise being clear and concise about things, don’t waffle or provide excess or extraneous information.

• They encourage inputs and feedback from others. I’ve mentioned this already above.

• They actively listen and ask open questions. This means try not to think about what you are going to say next and concentrate on what is being said to you. When you ask a question use one that don’t require a yes or no answer. “What is the temperature?” vs “Is the temperature too high?”

• They share key information. Some people use information as power. There is no room for selfishness or point scoring in a cockpit! Be liberal with sharing key facts.

• They don’t s compete with others. As a pilot we usually have bigger egos than others. Ego is good on one level, we need confidence to strap ourselves into a piece of aluminium tubing and launch ourselves along a bit of concrete and leap into the air, BUT we do need to know how to keep that ego under control! One doesn’t have to be first or top of everything, leave that to someone else, you will make a better team mate!

Well that’s the end of this part of the blog, look for Part 2 next week where I will start by exploring the all-important term of Leadership.