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The Pilot Project Podcast is an aviation podcast that aims to help new pilots learn what it takes to succeed in the world of flight, to help people in the flight training system learn what they may want to fly, and to give Canadians and the world a peek into life on the flight deck in the RCAF. We want to help pilots succeed and thrive! We interview real RCAF pilots for their exciting stories as well as the lessons they've learned along the way. We'll learn their tips to develop resilience and the tools it takes to make it in flight training.
THIS TRANSCRIPT IS AI GENERATED AND WILL CONTAIN SOME SMALL ERRORS. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE CONTACT thepilotprojectpodcast@gmail.com. We understand the importance of good subtitles but currently as a one-person operation we just don't have the ability to edit these in a timely fashion and keep episodes coming out regularly. Thank you for your understanding!
All right? We're ready for departure. Here at the Pilot Project Podcast, the best source for stories and advice from the pilots of the RCAF. Brought to you by Skies magazine and RCAF today. I'm your host, Brian Morrison. With me today is the commander of two Canadian air division, brigadier general John Alexander. John, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me, Brian.
Yeah, it's great to have you. Before we start, we'll get into John's Bio. John enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1989 under the Direct Entry Officer program. After earning his wings, he was posted to 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron, flying the Ch 135 Twin Huey. From there, he was posted to four two seven Tactical Helicopter squadron flying the Ch 135 and the Ch 146. Griffin he worked with Joint Task Force Two or JTF Two, as the Aviation Liaison officer and did an exchange posting with the RAF at 33 Squadron flying the HC One Puma helicopter. He was then posted to 403 Helicopter Operational Training Squadron as the Deputy Commanding Officer. He was Headquarters Commanding Officer for Canadian Special Operations Forces Command or Cansoftcom in Ottawa and the Commanding Officer of four two seven Special Operations Aviation Squadron. He then worked as the Director of Structures Integration under the Director of General Capabilities and Structures Integration and the Commander of Operation Calamit to the multinational force and observers in the Sinai, Egypt. He was also the Director of Flight Safety. He has done tours of operations in Bosnia in 2002 and 2003, the war in Iraq in 2003 and 2005, northern Ireland in 2004, and the Multinational Force and Observers 2015 2016. John was appointed commander to Canadian Air Division on 8 July 2022. Today we will be focusing on the hiring freeze for deo pilot applicants, as well as some questions kindly supplied by listeners and the Canadian Forces subreddit. We'll start with the standard first question where did flying start for you?
You know, odly enough. My very first time flying ever was in a glider when I was in Boy Scouts back in Ottawa. I could have been maybe 1112 years of age. And then the next time I ever got off the ground was to take the Boeing 707 to go to Chilawack for basic training in 1989 or 1990.
No kidding. So you went from flying a glider one time and then you were joining as a pilot?
Pretty much, yeah.
So what drove that interest to get you in as a pilot?
I had an older brother that was going through pilot training at the time and so kind of gave me a bit of the bug for it. Uh, so when I graduated from university, I went to Western university in Ontario. I just happened to be downtown one day and went by recruiting office and talked to recruiter, and we talked about what options are available for someone coming out of a degree in history. And he listed all the careers, and pilot was one of them. And I thought that sounded like a really interesting thing. You know, why? I try.
So once you finished your basic training, you got through your flight training, and you ended up first on the Twin Huey, right. At 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron.
That's correct, yes.
And then you had a pretty long flying career after that at various units, including an exchange posting with the RAF. Can you single out what you think your best day flying? I said in the RCAF, but the RAF as well.
Yeah, best day of flying. It's hard to put your finger on one thing alone. I've been very fortunate to have a lot of opportunities, but the one memory that always comes back to me time and again was training in Moose on the tutor jet, and being out there flying solo one day, bouncing between the clouds on a day very much like today. It just felt like a scene out of Star Wars as you went zipping between the clouds. And that's something that always stuck in my memory ever since.
You know, what's funny is you saying that I had a day just like that on the Harvard, too, that I can remember crystal clear, because it's just such a fantastic experience, and it's one of those moments that you're just so lucky to experience.
Yeah, it's just a feeling of awe. You feel so small in the world of things, and it just sticks you.
On the other side of that coin. What would you say was your hardest day flying?
I think probably the hardest day flying is when I was with 33 Squadron, Royal Air Force. I was deployed to Iraq in 2003 as we invaded to take Saddam Hussein out of power. And so we had two functions that we played there with the Puma helicopter. One we served as Kazavak, and the other one we served as troop movement. So I remember very vividly a lot of the medevacs. Not everyone made it, and that hurts. But at the same time, we had a sense of assurance, knowing that if you were alive getting in our aircraft, you had better than 90% chance of survival.
That must have been really tough, though, to have those cases where somebody doesn't make it. It is.
You kind of have to detach yourself a bit emotionally and recognize that you're there to serve a purpose. You're helping as much as you can, but you can't help everyone sometimes. And, uh, that's the part you have to struggle through and work through and realize that if I wasn't there, they had no chance, but by being there, gave them somewhat chance of survival, if you will.
Yeah, that makes complete sense. So let's get right into the reason for this interview. Recently, the RCAF has frozen the hiring process for direct entry officer pilot applicants. Can you tell us why that is?
Well, not an easy decision to come to. For us, it was a, uh, struggle. As we came out of COVID-19, we had fallen quite a bit behind in our training, not just for our, uh, abenishio pilots, but also for our instructor pilots, the new instructors that came into Moosejaw and Portugal Prairie. So we had to make a very dire decision in, uh, the last year to prioritize the training of new instructors so we could get them to a level or a cadre that we could support all the students that were awaiting training. That, unfortunately, exacerbated the problem of the wait times for students to go to Mooseja and Aborig. So, understanding that I don't have a lot of throttles to control the flow, people coming into the calf, direct entry is the one that has an immediate effect today. Whereas personnel joining under the ROTP program, they're going to be in our system for four years, typically before they come out of college or university and hit the flight line with us. So those that we're recruiting today in ROTP, I don't really see them enter my part of the enterprise for four years. And, um, so that's kind of the fixed throttle that I don't really have much adjustment on. But the direct entry officers come into us and after three months basic training, they show up on my side and they're now waiting training. And what we were finding is that we were having them wait in excess of two years before even hitting phase one training in Porsche Prairie. So it became necessary to look at that as the throttle that I could reduce in order to reduce the overall wait times for everyone else. Vice hiring them today, knowing that they're going to spend two to three years of OJT before we could ever get them to a wing status.
Right. That must have been a tough call to make.
Very much so. I mean, I'm a do myself, so I was frustrated 30 years ago having to spend a total of two years oje before getting my wings. I completely unsympathetic, uh, for the folks now that are waiting much longer than that. And so I'm trying to reduce that time, and it's coming at the cost of folks that I know very much want to join the Caf today as a direct entry officer.
So will that freeze also affect people who were in the middle of the process of joining?
So our year works on, uh, an April 1 to March 31 date. We were a little bit late getting this freeze in place, so there was a few people that came in through the door and were made offers already. And we're going to honor those offers, of course, but from that point forward, until March 31 of 2024. We are now frozen from deo entries at this point. So if they're in the middle of the process, I don't know how CFRG handles that. Whether they'll just retain the file and wait till the new fiscal year or whether the folks are going to have to go back through things, I have no idea how CFRG works out for.
That piece of it. They'd have to talk to their recruiter and sort of work it out on their case by case basis.
Absolutely.
Okay. And actually I'm doing an interview soon with a recruiter who's also a pilot, so maybe we'll be able to shed some light on that then.
That'd be awesome.
So for now, are we expecting this freeze to just last for this fiscal year? Is that the plan?
That's the plan right now and that's the one I want to stick to. If you are an instructor right now at Portage or Mooseja, you know the amount of pressure I'm putting on folks to try and find creative ways to reduce wait times for everyone. So you've already had interviews, I know, with Colonel Peak and a couple of others about our training initiatives that we're trying, such as bypassing Phase One. We've got some folks now nominated that are going to bypass Phase Two altogether and go straight to multi engine or rotary wing training because of their experiences on the civilian side before joining us. So we can PLR or give them prior learning assessment reviews to give them the credits that allows them to go straight to Phase Three training and then get on to note to you all the faster.
That's great. I'll ask you more about that in a bit. That's really interesting to hear. Before we get too far into that, can you tell me how many people are currently in the backlog for training and what you guys would consider to be a normal or optimal number?
So I got to refer to my notes here. So I've currently got 157 folks that are somewhere between Phase One, phase Two, or Phase Three currently on a course. And then I've got another 146 people that are between any one of those courses. So I've got almost as many people waiting for a course as people that are actively on a course at this moment. Really? We'd like to get a waiting number down to somewhere in the 50 to 60 range max. So there's always going to be some sort of weight between courses. And the reason for that is quite simply, that when you have weather delays or issues with aircraft, there is a bit of a slinky effect that goes on with the training. And so we always want to have some reserve of, uh, folks that are on awaiting trainings so that we can pull them up quickly. But it's not zero is the answer and it's certainly not 146.
Okay, so what other factors have led to this being necessary.
So I talked about the COVID-19, it was the Black Swan nobody saw coming. But we're also dealing with aircraft now in our program, both at NFTC and, uh, CFTs that are starting to get old.
NFTC is the NATO flight training center in Moosejaw. CFTs is contracted flying training and support in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.
We're heading towards the twilight of those contracts and so we're finding issues that are cropping up that are causing delays. The contractors are doing an awesome job of addressing those issues as they come up, and I'm really proud of what they're doing. But there's other factors as well, such as weather. We know climate change is affecting weather in North America. It's interesting, we pulled the weather, the METARs, or the, uh, hourly reports for Moosejaw for the last ten years. And when we crunched the numbers and looked at it, what we're seeing is winds are shifting around. They're no longer predominantly east and west as we've known for the last 50 years. What does that mean to us as pilots? Is it means that the aircraft's limitations for crosswind landings are starting to be impacted. The Harvard aircraft, for example, has a 15 knot crosswind landing limit, and it reduces when the runway is wet or icy. If the winds are no longer coming down the pipe, as we call it, and you're dealing more with crosswinds, you're going to reduce training there as well. It's just a limitation of the aircraft. So that's all good data because we then go back to Associate Deputy Minister for infrastructure and we start having discussions about what can we do? Do we need to reestablish the north south runway at Moosejaw? Because right now it hasn't been used for years and has fallen to a state of disrepair. Those are the kinds of conversations we need to have.
Wow, that's really interesting. I wouldn't have thought that shifting winds would have that large of an effect, but you got to remember that on those smaller training aircraft, on those training fleets, they don't have that much of a crosswind limit.
That's right. And we're not alone in this. Our allies are dealing with the same sort of issues with climate change, they're dealing with the same issues with aging aircraft. And of course, they're all struggling coming out of COVID So when I talk to my counterparts in the USAF, and the RAF and the RWF, they have all fallen behind in their pilot production numbers and are trying to dig themselves out of a hole very much like we are.
Can you tell us anything about what they've done to overcome these same challenges?
So interestingly, I chatted with the commander of training in the USAF, but I was very intrigued when he said, we are now bringing people into the USAF and we are streaming them directly into either helicopter, multi engine or fighter fixed wing aircraft. When I asked him, how do you do that? Are you looking at the air crew selection tests and trying to find markers that demonstrate people are more capable in one area or another. I was very intrigued in his answer, and he said, quite simply, it's about motivation. We ask them, um, what they want to do first. If you're motivated to want to be a fighter pilot, you'll work hard for it. Uh, if you're not motivated, then you're not going to be very successful. So we haven't tried that yet, but it's something we're having the discussion with the right people in personnel selection to say, do we think this can work or not?
That's really interesting, especially because so many people join with a specific dream in mind when it comes to flying. What would you do then for those, though, who join and just don't know much about what aircraft we have or what the opportunities would be?
That's a fair question. And that's exactly where I was when I joined. I did not know what I wanted to fly, and in fact, choice was kind of forced on me, physiologically speaking, because I can empathize with one of your earlier, uh, podcasts. I'm a puker in a big way. I rarely ever came down from a fixed wing flight without feeling nauseous or actively sick. So I was actually pretty happy to go helicopters, but I would not have known that at the stage of recruiting mhm. So what can we do? I don't know. It's a, uh, worthy discussion, and I would welcome any ideas from the community of aviators that we have as to what do you think could work or not work. Certainly that's one of the benefits of having an Oje program. I know people don't like to be awaiting training very long, but it does give them exposure to communities and allows them to realize, is this something that would interest me or not? Because as you've covered in many of your podcasts already, each community has different types of commitments, whether it's the amount of time away from home, um, deployed on operations, or pretty high level training, such as in the fighter community, where it's a lot of hard academics and it's hard on the body as well. But that's one of the benefits of the OGE program that we have.
It is, for sure. And actually a funny thing I find is a lot of the people I interview end up going back to the community they did their OGT with, just because they love it, they like what they know and they go back.
That's true. Yeah.
So this next question is a little bit theoretical, but what would you recommend to somebody who was in the process of a Deo application or about to apply for Deo? What would you recommend they do instead? Off the top of my head, I could think of join in another trade and hope to get a Vot or voluntary occupational transfer take on a related training in the civilian sector for now in hopes of being an attractive applicant or perhaps join under ROTP to get a second degree. What would you recommend?
Well, first of all, I would recommend don't give up the dream. I know one year seems like a long time, but it's not. Especially when you get to the end of your career like me, and you look back and you go, a year goes like that. I would, uh, suggest that you could help yourself by doing some training, local flying clubs, maybe try to get a rec license or something because that will all assist you when you do come in. If you have a private pilot's license already when you join us, we can peel our you through part of the training as well. And so that doesn't hurt along the way. But it's not a cheap option either.
So basically stick with it in some way and potentially get some training. And that helps you to skip some of the training later on down the road.
Yeah, that's probably the easiest like I say, not the cheapest option.
Yeah, no, definitely not. Are there any other new options coming down to cut down on wait times that you've been considering at two CAD?
So we've already talked a little bit bypassing phase one training altogether. I know Colin, uh, Pete talked about that in an earlier episode. So what we want to do is one of the things we've kind of learned with all the waiting between training is that folks are doing phase one training and that some are waiting more than two years to get to phase two training. By the time you've waited that long, you've pretty much atrophied in all the skills that we've taught you anyhow. So I came in here last summer and started challenging. Well, what's the point of phase one then? Our failure rated of phase one is only roughly around 5%. Back in the day when I was learning, it was still very much a selection phase and we were losing 40, 50 upwards of 60% on some courses because it was a selection. Right. So if it's not a selection phase anymore and you're atrophying most of the skills that we give you anyhow, my question or my challenge to the staff is can we bring them right in and put them straight into a Harvard aircraft and deal with the speed and everything there? How do we do it? And so the staff are really crunching away on that. The first answer came back to me as well, sir, we're just going to give them 20 extra hours at the front of Harvard training. It's like, well, then you're giving them phase one again. I need to be a little bit more imaginative than that. And so they're chomping on it. They probably use my name in vain sometimes, but that's my job is to challenge them.
Yeah, that's very interesting because I did have a question from somebody. They were asking, if this concept of merging phase one and two courses goes well, how will that concept work for applicants trained on the Harvard? And the answer is we're not sure yet. But you guys are already working on that?
Absolutely. And so if we do a direct phase two, we think we can bring folks in and go directly to phase two harvard directly phase two grob. And we're trialing also the direct phase two rotary wing. So that kind of brings us back to that concept that you SAP is trying where when you come in, you pronounce what it is you're interested in. And, uh, we could stream you in one of those three ways right off the start.
And from what I hear, the Phase two helo course so far is going quite well.
It was very successful. Yeah. Our first graduates have come off, I think we had four on the first quadrant.
Yeah. That's awesome. It's funny to think after all these years of doing it the way we've been doing it, phase one, phase two, phase three. And I think a lot of us have been convinced that this is the way, this is essential. It turns out maybe there are some better ways, some faster ways. And it's a little counterintuitive to think you could just walk somebody into a helicopter and say, okay, learn to fly this, but you could speak to this. How much carryover is there if you go from a fixed wing to a helicopter?
I mean, certainly a lot of the fundamental concepts are there ahead of time. But after doing 115 hours on the tutor jet and then showing up at Porridge of Prairie to fly the Jet Ranger the first time, it's completely humbling. It felt like I've learned nothing in the cockpit from the year previous. But a lot of the concepts to instrument flying whatnot are still there.
I was going to say maybe some of the core concepts like instrument flying, airmanship, radio, telephony, all those types of core core skills. But realistically, you can pick those up in probably five or ten extra hours of flying on a Jet Ranger.
Yeah, I totally agree.
Maybe not airmanship, but that takes a long time past your training anyways. That's a lifelong journey. Absolutely.
To this day, I still learn.
Yeah, you and me both. So you've talked a little bit about Pilars, which is, uh, a prior learning, assessment, recognition, and basically the purpose of those. They exist in many forms for many different courses and qualifications. And it's to look at somebody who's already qualified and let them bypass training to increase efficiency. Can you tell us a little more about how we're using that? I had some people asking, for example, if you had a qualified applicant who, say, had an ATPL or airline transport pilot license, would they be able to skip, say, a big chunk of, uh, the IFR or instrument flight rules, flying.
Training yeah, no, you're absolutely right. That's exactly what it's intended to be able to do is we look at their logbooks, we look at their experience and we try to assess do they have equivalency to some of the things that we would teach them either in Portage or Moosejaw? We haven't actually dismissed the idea of and the commander of the Air Force challenged me this. He said if I do have somebody that comes to you with an ATPL, let's say they've gotten five years experience with Air Canada, want to join the Caf, could you actually bypass phase one, two and three and send them straight on to an Otu? Now I don't have any applicants or any trainees in the system right now that I could actually pull a file and try that with. But we did recently go through the file review and we've pulled full four names excuse me, of individuals that we are going to jump straight to phase three training and see how that works out as well.
Yeah, I mean if you think about it, picture that person who has those five years in Air Canada and let's just say there has to be a reason for them to want to join the Air Force because they've already made it in a major way in aviation. So let's say this has always been a dream for them. Well, how attractive is it going to be if they have to do phase one, two, three? It's not even that guaranteed of a shot that they make it through all that versus hey, join with us and go fly the C 17. That's a lot more attractive.
You're absolutely right on that and that's the challenge we've got. How do we integrate all that together? The other program we also have is for the Caf wide is called the Caf Ace program. Essentially what it is. It's an online system where academic institutions across Canada, no matter what program, can go in and through the process with CDA, describe each of their courses. And it will set up essentially an automatic PLR capability so that when you show up at a recruiting center with a degree or a college diploma, they can automatically access the system and determine what caf equivalencies you will get right off the bat. I was a little bit skeptical that at first I thought, well, what's the incentive for university or colleges to want to do this? And when it was explained to me, made perfect to an incentives. They want to have as number of graduates as possible get a job on graduation because it looks good for their recruiting at the colleges and universities. So they are actively getting onto these websites that are maintained by CDA and they are starting to enter that data. It's growing more and more every day, but it will give the benefit where people show up at the recruiting center with here's my degree, here's my transcripts of the courses I've completed what is my Equivalencies, and they will be told right off the bat what they're going to get Equivalency for.
So that'll be another form of streamlining the training, hopefully.
Hopefully, yeah, very much so.
We're turning off the taps for now to get rid of this backlog. But what are we doing to ensure that we won't run into this situation again in the future?
It's challenging. It is a slinky effect. Through the Strategic Intake Plan, or the Sip, as we call it, every year we sit down with Dir Per Strat in Ottawa. There are, uh, linked to CMP and uh, CFRG to establish what is our recruiting objectives for the following year.
Could you just quickly explain CMP and CFRG? Yeah.
So CMP is Chief of Military Personnel. Everybody in the Caf at some point is managed by them to some extent. And then, of course, CFRG is a Canadian forces recruiting group. There are a front face to the public in recruiting people to join the cab.
Right on.
Thank you. So that Slinky effect I was talking about has been the perennial problem for years and years and years. Because although you create your Strategic Intake Plan as you action it, and something pops up out of the blue in the worst case COVID, but something unforeseen, such as perhaps there's a technical issue with an aircraft that requires the fleet to be grounded for a few weeks. That creates a pressure on your system that you now have to play catch up with. We've never done a freeze on DEOs like this ever before, to my knowledge. We've had to do it because of the most dire circumstances created out of COVID-19. I hope never to have to do that again. What we look to do is sit down with Dr. Per Strat and ensure that for the next year we set the appropriate numbers for direct entry officers and our OTPs and other entry programs.
Okay? So essentially managing it through proper planning and really recognizing the fact that this was created from an extreme global circumstance, it's unlikely that we'll get into this again.
Yeah, you're right. We all know that no plan survives first contact, so we do our best endeavors every year. But when circumstances change, we learn to adapt and overcome. Okay.
Another issue that we sometimes have right now in flight training is the waits between phases of flight training. What are we doing right now to shorten those wait times?
So, as I mentioned to you earlier, we've looking to try and get direct to Phase two. That's one of the first elements you've heard in one of your previous podcasts, how we have managed to purchase some training slots down in the United States to decrease that period between phase one and phase two.
And that's down at Shepard Air Force Base?
That's correct. Yeah. So they're flying the T six trainer, the Texan two, which is identical to the Harvard two.
So.
They're getting pretty much identical training that we would do in Moosejaw for phase two training, and then most of those folks will come back and roll into the phase three program somewhere in Portage or Moosejaw as necessary. Some may be asked to stay on and do the T 38 training there, if their ambition was to go fighters, but each file is dealt with separately. The last thing I was going to suggest is that as we twilight out on the Nftac and CFTs program and roll in the new program of fact.
Fact is the Future Air Crew training.
Program, I'm actually trying to ramp up training in anticipation that it's not going to be a perfectly seamless transition from one contract to another. Because as the one contract twilights out and the new contract gets implemented, you have to train up your instructors to train on the new aircraft, the new syllabuses, et cetera. So there will be a dip in pilot production when that happens. So my ambition right now is if I can train, uh, as many people to wing standard as possible, it may result in a delay getting onto OTUs. That's unavoidable, and it's unfortunate, but it's what we'd have to do in order to maintain the proper flow of people into squadrons while we transition to the future air crew training.
So basically, if we create a bit of a surplus now, that should help to cover us as we transition to the new contracts.
Correct.
Now that does dovetail, uh, into my next question, but it sounds like maybe the answer is that it's not what we necessarily want to hear. If all these plans to relieve the backlog and speed up phase training work, is anything being done to prepare the operational training units or OTUs for the influx of trainees?
So we have discussions quite frequently with one Canadian air division because they do own the operational conversion units, and we try to supply them the rate numbers year to year to keep those operational conversion units flowing at the correct rate. There is an acknowledgment that this may create a backlog, but they are doing the same thing we are right now, which is putting the emphasis on forced generation as part of reconstitution in the calf, and they're trying their best to keep that flow going as quickly as they can. And apart from the cyclone Otu that I'm aware of, virtually all the other TUS, uh, have very little to no weight to get onto aircraft type.
Okay, so that situation has been improving.
It has indeed.
And what advice would you give to someone who has a wait time for their Otu?
Okay, so it was discussed in one of your previous shows, the idea of getting civilian flying for folks. We are very close to getting the ink signed on that and dried so that pilots awaiting training at any phase in their training, whether it's post wings or pre wings, will be able to go to a flying club. And get some training on a Cessna or Rob or similar type aircraft to keep their hands and feet in the game while they're waiting. Training.
That's great to hear. I was actually going to ask you about that. So when do you expect that to take effect?
Not nearly as fast as I wanted at the beginning. There's contractual issues. You have to sign contracts with them because there's always going to be questions about liabilities, et cetera like that, and how the clubs and stuff get refunded, uh, or reimbursed for the services that they're providing. I at the outset, had felt or thought that what we could do is just give essentially an allowance to each member and say, as long as you go to a Transport Canada authorized flying school, you can pay for. The hours up to a certain limit each year and then get reimbursed for it, just like you would for your boots or other items that we ask people to buy on their own dollar. Uh, unfortunately, I was overruled on that by our contracting folks and told that you couldn't do that. It's essentially contract splitting. And so we do have to go through a contracted process with the schools that are willing and want to take on these contracts for our personnel to get flying with them.
So does that mean people will have to go to specific schools located in various places to get in on those flying opportunities?
I don't want to save for 100% certainty on that because that's not what I was aiming for. Okay. But we may end up going down. That unfortunately. Okay.
I'll say this. Anything that involves being able to fly while you're awaiting training is fantastic, because we would have killed to get that while I was waiting. I spent three years waiting total. One and a half for Moose John, one and a half for my Otu, and we would have loved to have been flying in that time. So, yeah, I think that's going to be a real treat for all those trainees, for sure.
Yeah, I totally agree.
Did you have a timeline on when you think that will take effect?
I asked the staff just as recently as a couple of weeks ago, and I was told that it is in the contracting phase right now. So imminently is the reply I got back.
Okay, that's great. That's awesome news. Believe it or not, we've already gone through the lion's share of our questions, so we're down to our last three standard questions, and they're my three favorite questions. What would you say is the most important thing you do to stay ready for your job?
Gosh, it's sad to say, as a senior officer, I stay honed on my PowerPoints and outlooks and stuff like that. I'm actually joking on that. In seriousness, at my level with the job that I do, I need to stay connected with the trainees that we have in our system, our instructors. So I do spend an awful lot of the time on the road every year going around to every one of our academic institutions and talking to people. I don't call them town halls when I meet with the students. I prefer to call them fireside chats, where we sit down very comfortably in a relaxed environment, and I let them unload on me. I learn a lot through that process, but at the same time, I get to also provide explanations back to them about why things are, uh, the way they are and acknowledge that, yes, it is frustrating for many of them. But I think when they start to hear what it is we're trying to do and we do listen to what they have to offer and we try to implement some of those. Most of these ideas we talked about today have originated from them. Really? Yeah, very much so. Uh, they're very willing to share their ideas, and I'm very much willing to experiment with it as well. The commander of the Air Force is very willing to try new things. One of the last things I would say about it as well is that we want every one of our trainees to succeed. It's not our intent to select out people. It's actually to make successes out of the people that we have, because just to get through the door and to put the uniform on and to train to become a pilot, you've really demonstrated that you're capable of doing the job already. So we need to work with you to get you the success and the wings on your chest.
What do you think makes a good pilot?
I think you have to be a well rounded sort of person. It's not about being all in the books all the time. You have to have a certain practicality to you to be able to flex when things don't go exactly where they are, to plan to anticipate, certainly. And frankly, you just got to be a person, uh, that people want to work with and you want to work with them. So there's a lot of personality that comes into the job, given that it's.
Partly personality traits but partly skills. What do you think people can do to hone those skills, to be a more well rounded person?
Well, I mean, first of all, when it comes to flying, it's always learning something new every flight. And it doesn't matter how many years you've been flying. Every year when you come up to your annual proficiency check or your IRT ride, there's stress. I mean, I stressed about every time I had to do one of those check rides 100%. But that stress is good for you. I think there's a good level of stress, and you need to keep yourself in good physical form. You do have to be in the books to a degree, obviously, to stay current on all the new changes, whether it's flying regulations, what have you, but you got to learn to balance that all in your life. It's not all work.
That's not an easy skill to learn either, because especially at the beginning, there's so much to learn and you can really find yourself living in the books.
I got to tell you. Funnily enough, when I was going through training, because I sort of joined, I didn't have that same burning sensation, that pilot or nothing. I kind of joined, not on a lark, but at the same time, when I went through air cruise selection and then deported Prairie, I had the attitude that if I make it, great. If I don't make it, well, I can go back and have a job in London, Ontario, I'll be fine. But as I got further and further on training and I could see that light at the end of the tunnel, it was like, I really want that, and you really start working harder to it. Uh, but it was worth every ounce of the effort.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. All right, so this is our last question. I want you to think about somebody who's listening, who is thinking about joining as a pilot, or somebody who's just starting their journey as a new pilot. What advice would you give to that new pilot?
We're encroaching or embarking on a really cool period in our RCAF. We've got a lot of new aircraft that are coming down the pipe. And as we start the second century of the RCAF, I think it's the coolest time right now to be joining the RCF. We've got the F 35s are going to be showing up shortly. The first of the new A 330s we've received already. And we've got more coming. We're looking at a project to try and replace a CP 140. At some point, we're going to be having discussions about what's the next tactical aviation aircraft as well. So it's an awesome time. I think it's great.
Yeah, it's funny. It's that old cliche we all jokingly say, right, it's a great time to be in the Air Force. But I truly am, um, jealous of the people who are just joining now with all these really cool new aircraft coming down the pipe and imminently coming down the pipe.
Yeah, me too.
Like, the F 35 will be here soon. The airbus people are training on now. The P Eight. They're looking at, well, potentially the P Eight. I know there's some various news stories right now, but whatever the replacement is, they're looking at that fairly soon. So it's pretty exciting.
Yeah, I think so. The capabilities of the aircraft themselves are awesome. Generations better than what I had when I was first starting. I can't imagine what it'll be like 30 years from now.
Oh, it's going to be crazy. I mean, uh, the one thing that I wonder about now is when will we start because the RCAF does not have a UAS program right now.
Right? Well, we certainly have the small UAVs that we use and that course that we run through Barker College. But the full up Rpass that you're talking about, that program is in contract negotiations right now.
I believe Rpass is remotely piloted aircraft system, also commonly known as UAVs. That'll be very interesting to see, because I know we had the Heron, uh, in the Afghanistan days, right? And my old squadron, 400 Squadron did some of that. When I first got to 405 Squadron, there was some talk of people there working with UAVs. And I did have a good friend who went and flew the Heron in Australia on an exchange posting. But for a few years now, there's been a bit of a I don't know if I'd call it a capability gap, but we haven't had that. So it'll be very interesting to see what comes down the pipe with that as well.
Yeah. Uh, as part of NORAD modernization, the defense of North America, a lot of these programs are being funded through that as well. They're incredible force multipliers for the country writ large, not just the RCF.
Okay, that's going to wrap up this chat. I just want to thank you, John, for being on the show. I know you're a very busy person, so I really appreciate you taking the time to be here.
Brian, it's, uh, very much my pleasure. I've really been enjoying listening to your podcast and that which you actually deliver for us and the, uh, folks across country who are interested in joining the RCF as a pilot. So thank you.
That's going to wrap up our episode with Brigadier General John Alexander. All about the pilot deo hiring freeze. For the next episode, we'll be sitting down with one of my best friends, Davis Clark, and we'll be talking all things Aurora. I'm seriously excited for this one. Do you have any questions or comments about anything you've heard in the show? Would you or someone you know make a great guest? You can reach out to us at ah, thepilotprojectpodcast@gmail.com or on all social media at Atpodpilotproject. As, uh, always, we will close by thanking you, the listener, for your support and for continuing to help us with the big three that's like and follow us on social media. Share with your friends and follow and rate us five stars wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for now. Thanks for listening. Keep the blue side up. See you.