Auditor General's Report on Pilot Training
Here's the section: National Defence—NATO Flying Training in Canada.
A segment that tells a tale.
3.23 The training program has remained underused because National Defence has not enrolled enough pilots into the NFTC program. In addition, however, we found that the ability of the operational training units to absorb pilots after their NFTC training is an ongoing problem—the units do not have enough room to take in all the pilots that the NFTC program would graduate if it was used at full capacity [my emphasis]. Therefore, the Department has been limiting the number of pilots it enrolled in the program in 2003 and 2004. This trend has continued into 2005.
3.24 National Defence also decided in 2004 to lower the enrolment to the NFTC basic training level as it anticipated an interruption in the next stage of training for helicopter and multi-engine aircraft pilots. The existing contract for the helicopter and multi-engine flying training expired in August 2005, and a new CFTS contract was signed in October 2005. This new contract has a two-year transition period before training can be provided at full capacity. As a result, National Defence has made a decision to under-enrol pilots in the basic NFTC program until the next stage of training is at its capacity.
3.25 The interruption in helicopter and multi-engine aircraft flying training may create more of a backlog of Canadian Forces pilots who are waiting for training and increase their wait times. We found that, since 2002, National Defence had improved wait times and backlogs. Wait times had fallen from between 18 and 22 months to about 11 months, and the backlog of pilots waiting to start flying training had dropped from about 161 pilots to about 80. However, new delays may cause backlogs and wait times to increase again.
In other words: too many pilots, not enough planes after training completed.
A segment that tells a tale.
3.23 The training program has remained underused because National Defence has not enrolled enough pilots into the NFTC program. In addition, however, we found that the ability of the operational training units to absorb pilots after their NFTC training is an ongoing problem—the units do not have enough room to take in all the pilots that the NFTC program would graduate if it was used at full capacity [my emphasis]. Therefore, the Department has been limiting the number of pilots it enrolled in the program in 2003 and 2004. This trend has continued into 2005.
3.24 National Defence also decided in 2004 to lower the enrolment to the NFTC basic training level as it anticipated an interruption in the next stage of training for helicopter and multi-engine aircraft pilots. The existing contract for the helicopter and multi-engine flying training expired in August 2005, and a new CFTS contract was signed in October 2005. This new contract has a two-year transition period before training can be provided at full capacity. As a result, National Defence has made a decision to under-enrol pilots in the basic NFTC program until the next stage of training is at its capacity.
3.25 The interruption in helicopter and multi-engine aircraft flying training may create more of a backlog of Canadian Forces pilots who are waiting for training and increase their wait times. We found that, since 2002, National Defence had improved wait times and backlogs. Wait times had fallen from between 18 and 22 months to about 11 months, and the backlog of pilots waiting to start flying training had dropped from about 161 pilots to about 80. However, new delays may cause backlogs and wait times to increase again.
In other words: too many pilots, not enough planes after training completed.
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 3:35 p.m.
2 Comments:
Just wondering, I'm looking for somone who could tell me what the actual pay is for Canadian military personell from the lowliest private too the highest brass, would be greatly appreciated. You could post to my blog or use my email.
I read the article above by the way. What can you say though, par for the course when it comes to government spending on things it doesn't really consider important.
That should change in the near future with this Conservative government. Who knows for how long though ?
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