Pilot Training (Report)

HC Deb 18 March 1964 vol 691 cc181-3W

Mr. Gough

asked the Minister of Aviation what action has been taken on the recommendations of the Hamilton Committee's Report on Pilot Training.

Mr. Marten

The Government have studied this useful and thorough Report and in principle accepts its main proposals. These have now been discussed with the interests concerned and the following action has been put in hand.

One of the Committee's most important recommendations concerns the institution of approved courses for those seeking to become professional pilots. After full discussion with the representatives of operators, of professional pilots, and of flying schools, the standards to be required for approval of courses have been issued and schools may now apply for approval. From a date not earlier than January, 1965, all candidates for a commercial pilot's licence, who have not already begun training, will need to attend an approved course before they can be accepted for examination, unless they can show that they have extensive flying experience, for example in the Services, that can be counted instead. This measure should ensure that no one can become a professional pilot without a thorough grounding in the relevant knowledge and techniques both on the ground and in the air.

The Committee also endorsed the Government's proposals to assist pilot training financially, in line with the Government's general policy on industrial training. This assistance is already available to operators sponsoring students at the College of Air Training and discussions are in progress about the possible extension of similar assistance at other flying schools approved for professional pilot training.

The Committee made recommendations also about the standards of instructors in flying schools. These recommendations will be borne in mind in approving flying schools, and will I am sure be taken fully into account by the schools and other bodies concerned.

The Committee's proposals for a "Junior Wings" scheme to introduce young people in their late teens to civil aviation have aroused a great deal of interest. The scheme will be tried out on a small scale in representative areas up and down the country this summer if, as now seems likely, details can be worked out in time with the local authorities concerned. The full scheme would offer up to 1,000 scholarships a year to boys and girls between 16 and 18 to provide elementary flying training in their holidays. Full implementation of the proposals will be considered in the light of the response to the trial scheme and of the views of the Local Authority Associations, upon whose co-operation the success of the scheme will in large part depend. My right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Minister of Education and I regard the project as one which will not only bring young people into contact with one of our forward-looking industries, but also have educational value in its own right.

I should like here to pay tribute to the Duke of Hamilton and the members of the Committee for all the work they have done and for the excellent Report they have produced.