What now? Choosing your path to the Airlines.

Today’s introduction is by John rather than myself. Over to you, John.

In our brochure “So you want to be a pilot, huh” we quote a startling fact. 71% of pilots who qualify after training eventually leave the industry! (“Professional Pilot Career Progression in New Zealand”) This paper was carried out by John Murrie a PhD student and our own Captain David Griffin, for NZALPA. The obvious question is why? Further and most importantly - what can be done to bring in a better ratio? When thinking about this I have reached out to some pilots who have recently reached their goal of achieving an airline pilot role. On the whole these folk are a generation or two behind our cohort so should be more relevant and up to date. I have also written to some employers to ask what they look for when employing pilots and hope to publish their comments in due course. We would now like to share their insights, experiences and words of wisdom. Hopefully some of the up and coming will gain knowledge of how to achieve their goal of becoming an airline pilot! It seems to me young pilots embarking on a journey to become airline pilots can do a lot to be in the 29% group. Words like motivation, presentation, application, determination, sense of adventure, good communication skills, etc come to mind!

And as such, we are pleased to introduce to you Alex Griffin who has recently joined Air New Zealand as a Q300 First Officer.

Newly Minted First Officer Alex Griffin

I started flight school straight out of high school in 2015. I went to IAANZ in Christchurch. IAANZ was good at getting you through quickly. I did my PPL, CPL  and MEIR at IAANZ in 18 months. Towards the end of my training I had to decide between doing a C-Cat or doing the Air New Zealand Airline integration course  (AIC). I decided to do the C-Cat as I believed it would help me get from 250 hours to where I needed to be to be considered at an airline.  While I didn’t want to work at IAANZ or CAC, it would have been the easiest job to get because they already know you and how you work.

I should have put a better foot forward during the interviews during C-Cat training.

During flight Training at IAANZ

After finishing my C-Cat and not getting a job at IAANZ I went to Queenstown and Kaikoura looking for work but being mid-summer season they were all fully staffed and no jobs available. Around that time I started the 3 month process of converting my licence to Australia.

Once I had my Australian Licence, I went to Broome to see if it was worth moving to Northwest Aus for work. I had a much better reception there and was going to move over in March 2017.

Around the same time I saw a few job ads on AFAP for instructors in Victoria, one at SOAR and one at MFTA (both no longer exist). I applied for both and went over to interview and was offered both jobs. During the SOAR interview I got a bad feeling about the place and decided not to accept their offer. The next day I interviewed at MFTA and accepted the job training China Southern cadets to fly. After completing the required Night and Spin instructors’ ratings, which took about a month and a half to get booked and competed, I started at MFTA. On my second day the entire company shut down leaving 20 instructors out of a job. Most of us were rehired by a new company taking on the China Southern contract 3 months later. After 2 years of instructing, I was ready to apply for Air New Zealand, I had 1200 hours and 100 night hours. Air NZ advised I wouldn’t be offered an interview without operational IFR experience which I wasn’t going to get where I was as a VFR instructor.

Alex with his trusty steed at Barrier Air

About a week later I saw a job advertised on Facebook for Barrier Air in Auckland flying single pilot IFR in a Cessna Caravan. I started in October 2019 which was very good timing because not long after Covid hit and my old job instructing in Australia shut down.  I worked at Barrier Air for almost 4  years and added about 2300 hours to my CV.  The time there was extended due to the covid induced industry hiring freeze.

I am now a Q300 First officer with Air New Zealand, Living in Nelson.

 As you can see my path from flying school to airline employment took about 7 years and had a few set backs along the way.   I was determined to make it to an Airline position and made some sacrifices along the way, be prepared for this, be prepared to move and to not earn a lot for several years. 

The final goal is worth chasing.