Photo: VA Airline Training
Resilient Pilot, the free pilot mentoring service established in May 2020 to support the pilot community, has launched the ‘Resilient Pilot Flightplan’ to provide pilots with support and guidance to ensure they are fully prepared and equipped to return safely to the flight deck when airline recruitment recommences.
The ‘Resilient Pilot Flightplan’ will provide a range of services and solutions at reduced rates for pilots directly affected by the impact of Covid-19 on the airline industry.
Stuart Beech, co-founder of Resilient Pilot explains the driver behind the initiative: “Our foundations are built upon providing support for the pilot community. Through the free mentoring service that we provide, it is very evident that the pilot community – in particular cadets in training, newly qualified pilots or those pilots who have sadly been made redundant – are juggling all manner of pressures.
“Many are having to uproot their family life and move countries. We would like to support them by offering straight-forward answers and solutions to help them navigate the regulations and requirements to maintain their licences and keep their skills and knowledge current.
“The ‘Resilient Pilot Flightplan’ will ultimately provide an extensive range of cost-effective solutions in collaboration with world class Approved Training Organisations (ATOs).”
The team has prioritised the launch of licence renewal and/or revalidation, refresher and CCQ packages in the UK. Type Rating and IR renewal packages will be announced shortly.
Resilient Pilot’s volunteer team have negotiated what they believe to be excellent rates with leading ATOs and have agreed that ‘FlightPlan’ pilots will benefit from the expertise of a core group of some of the industry’s most experienced instructors and examiners.
Resilient Pilot will continue to seek similar collaborations in order to support a full range of aircraft types and provide pilots with a choice of options including more international locations.
Resilient Pilot co-founder Karen Bath continued: “We will provide the customer interface and the administrative support to ensure all regulatory requirements are met, which is another daunting prospect and a pressure pilots can do without right now.
“And, of course, pilots can also opt to connect with one of our pilot or specialist mentors for additional support at no additional charge.”
Resilient Pilot is a ‘not for profit’ organisation and to date everything has been funded by team members.
“In order to launch these top-quality services and to best assist the pilot community, we will need to build in a small fee,” said Stuart.
The fee will be split three ways:
- To help cover administrative costs (regulatory paperwork checks etc).
- To reinvest into the Resilient Pilot to provide additional solutions for the pilot community.
- To build a bursary fund – ‘Pay it Forward’.
“We are still finalising the details of the latter, but it has always been our vision to be able to raise funds to help those pilots in difficult circumstances and this is the start of seeing that vision come to life,” said Stuart.
“For now though, our priority is to keep our pilot colleagues current, safe and supported in whichever way we are able.”
