Pilot training in Soviet times and today: problems in Russian aviation

Russian aviation is experiencing an acute shortage of professional staff. Many pilots prefer to work in foreign companies. The reason is often simple: they pay more there. The acute shortage of professional pilots in passenger aviation leads to the need to "patch up personnel gaps." Some companies themselves are trying to quickly retrain the former graduate of the flying institute of piloting those aircraft that are in their fleet. Others try to lure the experienced with financial gain. It turns out with varying degrees of success.

At the same time, unfortunately, our country has a high level of accidents in civil aviation. Yes, this is a fraction of a percent. However, it is still significantly higher than in Europe, North America, China, and Southeast Asia.

Experts are discussing the reasons for this state of affairs in the domestic civil aviation. Different versions are being expressed. One of them concerns the issue of training Russian pilots. To what extent the programs that are used in our country are relevant today, to what extent they correspond to the peculiarities of modern air transportation, the operation of various aircraft - passenger, transport.

A separate conversation is the training of military pilots. In military aviation, too, in this regard, not everything is cloudless. Numerous optimizations with the transfer of educational institutions "geographically" could not but leave a negative mark on the training of future conquerors of the sky.

Vladimir Potapov, the author of the SkyArtist YouTube channel, shares his thoughts. He notes the quality of Soviet training of pilots (pilots), comparing with what is now.

Comments

[The leader of the Redskins]

Hmm ... Recently, it seems, the same problem was discussed with gusto in a neighboring state.
I didn't think that we have the same ...

[alystan]

Yes, it seems that it has been known for a long time! Most of the first-class pilots (I think not only them) were lured to themselves by high salaries from neighboring China. It is sad, of course, all this.
But, to cheer up, I want to share news about the United States, which may be pleasant for all of us, where, due to the "rash" decisions / actions of the country's leadership (and the leaders of certain states agreeing with it) to "fight" the pandemic, they quit their jobs as a sign almost 4,5 million people disagree with this.
It's like that joke about the dead neighbor's cow ...

[New Year day]

... notes the quality of Soviet training of pilots (pilots), comparing with what is now.

You don't even need to look - the answer is obvious. And so on in any specialty

[your1970]

Quote: Silvestr

... notes the quality of Soviet training of pilots (pilots), comparing with what is now.

You don't even need to look - the answer is obvious. And so on in any specialty

The answer is not so obvious ... the flight hours are now higher - than in the late USSR

Zy "Forget all that garbage that you taught at the institute and listen here" (from) the 1970s
Personally, I was told this in 1990

[avia12005]

And what, after Serdyukov's reforms, can we talk about the mass training of pilots in the only school?

[singless]

and where there are good shots. only films are made about the police, doctors of pilots, and which ones are investigating invented stories. some businessmen in any industry

[Gardener91]

Even if there is a complete reserve of the material base, the question of personnel training the flight personnel themselves will become even more acute. Well, based on the available aviation technology, the development of training methods will take more than a dozen (!) Years, both of the initial training and on the UBS in the aerospace forces.

[svoroponov]

There are methods and have been worked out. The problems are with the material base, funding from the state. Private traders in Russia, in the sense of "rich Buratino", because of greed, will not sponsor aviation, well, if only for themselves or their business. Amateurs have no money. We need a purposeful state policy.

[Gardener91]

Quote: svoroponov

There are methods and have been worked out. The problems are with the material base, funding from the state. Private traders in Russia, in the sense of "rich Buratino", because of greed, aviation will not sponsor

Well, you can teach a bear to fly, train a high-class pilot, a specialist, as a highly intelligent, effective "weapon" is possible only on a piece conveyor, which was the Air Force University in the USSR. Well, at the legislative level, it is impossible to "sponsor" this industry, even though capitalism. Techniques are interesting only for their own, where only the advanced is taken from the "strangers". It is not enough to generalize experience, to bring it into a single set of "laws" of training. I already wrote: it takes time, and with it the development of aviation technology does not stand still.

[Very kind]

Vladimir Potapov... He celebrates quality

YkschpErd, to put it mildly, offensive and with a "smell"

[Bez 310]

I do not even know what to say...
A long time ago, in Soviet times, a fourth-year cadet-pilot arrived for a military training in a regiment of Tu-4 aircraft, which he had never flown. The first flight from the seat of the assistant to the crew commander (pravak) is performed with an instructor - an ostentatious zone, the instructor shows how this plane takes off, flies, and sits, entrusting the cadet with the simplest actions with the cockpit fittings: cleaning-releasing the landing gear and flaps, elementary actions with the steering wheel. ..
The pilot-instructor, the squadron commander, taxied to the runway, put the plane on the center line, and said to the cadet: "Take off!" The cadet just got fucked up by such an order, but pulled himself together and took off. This is how cadets-pilots were trained earlier ...

[Gardener91]

Quote: Bez 310

The cadet just got fucked up by such an order, but pulled himself together and took off.

And then: -You want to live, you will sit down))

[76SSSR]

Quote: Bez 310

The pilot-instructor, the squadron commander, taxied to the runway, put the plane on the center line, and said to the cadet: "Take off!"

The Soviet school is not khukhry-mukhry ... Thrown out over the dense taiga - go out in 3 weeks to the collection point, with a flask of water, biscuits, a knife and the newspaper "Pravda". And nothing - they went out ... We slept on the branches, fastened with a belt to the trunk so that they would not eat below, or, if we were lucky, in a hollow. One "colleague" ran into a bear-rod, sorry for the bear ... And now ...

[svoroponov]

Only from the next seat did the commander insure with the arms and legs on the controls so that the young pilot did not overdo it.

[Bez 310]

Quote: svoroponov

Only from the next chair with arms and legs insured

Of course, how can you do without it?

[bober1982]

Thanks to the author, Balashovsky VVAUL is a glorious school.
In my opinion, there are inaccuracies, the author is most likely a young man, which inaccuracies:
- Soviet traditions of military aviation began to be broken in the Soviet period
- flight and navigational schools "optimized" from the end of the 80s, when they transferred to 5-year training. In navigational schools they began to fly from the 4th year (?!), before that - from the 1st year. The overall level of graduates has declined, and that was under the USSR.
- already released in 1990. and 1991. had distribution problems, since 1991. for the most part they released (navigators) even without uniforms, a diploma in hand, and go to the national economy.
- since 1992 there was a real collapse, all military aviation remained outside of Russia, there were regiments in Afghanistan, or they were not, nobody was interested, it was no longer Russian aviation, and it was not clear who was to be kept there. Everyone began to scatter, who where.
- the mentioned Tu-160s that were being cut, it's sad, but these planes were Ukrainian and that was their problem at that time. We tried to buy them out, but it was hard to compete with the Americans.
- for 1992 there was a situation when all that huge number of military aviation schools was simply not needed - there was no kerosene, no money, and there were no enemies at that time either, for this reason there was no demand for pilots and navigators.

[svoroponov]

I think that's all for this, albeit slowly, but the Russian aviation is being revived. Everything will be over time. The dark times are slowly leaving.

[bober1982]

Quote: svoroponov

I think that's all for this, albeit slowly, but the Russian aviation is being revived. Everything will be over time. Dark times are slowly leaving

Yes, it is, I was in the school two months ago - cadets, officers, flights, training base, barracks ... everything is in perfect condition, for admission to the school - a real boom.

[Vovk]

Quote: bober1982

- the mentioned Tu-160s that were being cut, it's sad, but these planes were Ukrainian and that was their problem at that time. We tried to buy them out, but it was hard to compete with the Americans.

Your information is incorrect. At that time, the President of Ukraine Kuchma repeatedly offered Russia the remaining 14 Tu-22M3, 17 Tu-22M2, 11 Tu-160 for an adequate price at that time or for forgiving Ukraine's debts on Gaza. Russia wanted to buy them at the price of scrap metal and did not raise the price for a ruble. Therefore, there is no need to nod that Ukraine is to blame ... The American proposal was accepted already after the 10th refusal of Russia to buy planes.

[Pete mitchell]

Here about the first part he said that it is - nostalgia, the second part is nostalgia about Balashov, I understand, but I do not agree on everything - they were not the only ones who flew at night: we flew at night from the second program, passed the state at night, and this is a test of the piloting technique and application. And the dropout rate was always very high in the flying VUZ - the specifics are as follows: after all the regional selections, 2000 arrived at the school, 226 entered, finished 95, 14 with “gold” and honors diplomas, never heard of “experienced passengers” ... Who and how decided rebuild the training system for military pilots - I hope prosecutors will one day begin to find out; right now in Krasnodyrsk school, too, not everything is rosy, but the process is underway.

[Pete mitchell]

It was unambiguously necessary to preserve the aforementioned Academies, but the system of training civilians requires changes. A strange situation: airlines live in a world of business and felling for profit, but at the same time they receive ready-made pilots from the State and consider it correct - all taxpayers pay for the well-being of airlines that also milk the budget, register airplanes in Ireland or somewhere else, but at the same time they are in world business. You either work for the State with all the consequences, or you yourself please - however, capitalism.
The European system works and produces a large number of highly disciplined pilots who are quite successful in steering modern aircraft. The American system is too cumbersome - where to fly one and a half thousand hours to knock on the doors of a decent company on decent equipment: it is expensive and takes time.
I have already said and will repeat myself: the time when it was possible to rest on the laurels of past achievements is long gone, quite radical changes of a strategic nature are required. This is not a matter of one year, but it must be done: The country has dropped out of the company of trendsetters in aviation fashion, there is a chance to return, but changes are needed - so we will wait for the third part about defective managers

[Pete mitchell]

Quote: Pete Mitchell

The European system works and produces a considerable number of highly disciplined pilots who are quite successful in steering ...

By the way, from fresh

Fly by air ... it ended well

[Pushkar]

The Zhugarin Academy (relocated to Voronezh and merged together by the Zhukovsky and Gagarin academies), technically and in the curriculum, began on the basis of the Irkutsk Military Technical Aviation School, which was never the best among the country's aviation technical schools. I don’t know about now, but the beginning was terrible. However, writing about this is a separate topic.