The financial obstacles to training pilots and the need to nurture young talent led a host of topics that arose in a session on pilot training and safety at Aviation Africa 2017 in Kigali last month. Others included health, discipline, mental well-being, the profession’s effect on family life, safety and monitoring, and the blight of poorly trained or even rogue pilots.

The dearth of trained pilots and the expense of bringing them to maturity remain constant concerns for African airlines. A framework contract signed in January between Airways College, the Agen- and Nimes-based French pilot training school, and the Ivory Coast’s Institut National Polytechnique Houphouët-Boigny (INP-HB) illustrates the level of difficulty associated with cultivating legitimate talent.

The agreement foresees the creation of a section dedicated to pilot training within the Ivorian institution, for which plans call for the training of just 25 students selected and recruited by Air Côte d’Ivoire, the national airline company, starting in April.

“During pre-training evaluation, some 3,000 people applied for pilot positions, with 200 selected as a first step,” said Krista Vandermeulen, CEO of corporate business development at Airways College.

“Very specific tests on psychological fitness, English, mathematics and physics were used to [winnow] the numbers down to 25, with physical and medical factors also used as a screening tool,” she added. “What the airlines want are pilots who are operational, and can contribute to pilot safety in an airline.”

Neil Fraser, business development director at Dublin-based pilot recruitment firm Spectrum Aviation, said representatives from his company had visited Africa five times in 14 months to help understand airline requirements and match those to its pilot database.

He and his company faced a constant problem from people who sought pilot work without the required qualifications or with falsified documentation. Spectrum screens potential pilots four times on the telephone, he said, before the recruitment process proper can begin. “References are critical for us,” he said, in improving the quality of the pilots the company brought into the marketplace.

Vandermeulen noted that problems often arose with trainees who proved financially, but not temperamentally, suited to undertake pilot training. “They have the money, but they don’t have the right attitude. He or she isn’t the kind of person we are looking for. That’s the difference between one school and another,” she said.

Clinical depression remains another concern in the industry. Greg Darrow, a captain with American Airlines, FAA examiner and head of sales and marketing at online educator CPaT Aviation Training Solutions of Texas, said American’s "Project Wingman" had helped ensure fellow pilots kept an eye on colleagues who showed signs of depression in an effort to prevent situations such as those that caused the Germanwings A320 pilot-suicide crash in 2015. “You are going to save his career—and maybe save his life,” he said.