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THE CONDITIONS ARE clear, there is barely a cloud in the sky and a Boeing 737-800 is cruising east above Dublin Bay.
Oh, and I’m flying it.
Luckily for people on the ground and off it, I’m not in an actual plane and nobody is counting on me to land the 130 tonne aircraft.
Instead I’m in a warehouse a short drive from Dublin Airport at Simtech’s facility, safely ensconced in the right-hand seat of their 737 simulator, which is used to train pilots from all over the world. Simtech is a specialist provider of flight simulation and pilot training services and was founded by Sé Pardy and Fergal Keogh, in 2004. They recently sold a stake in their business to private equity firm Renatus Capital Partners and Martello Group, a specialist aviation, leisure and real estate group.
Beside me is Bob Sheehan, the company’s engineering manager, who has worked on these simulators for nearly 40 years. He says that while not a pilot himself, he would class himself as the next most qualified person most flights he’s been on.
After showing me the circuit, Bob turns the simulator over to me. With him watching, I take the plane up to 3,000 feet and around 25 miles from the runway before turning around. The simulator itself doesn’t move, but the experience makes you feel like it is. The simulators are programmed using the data and parameters from test flights. It’s as real as you would expect a €9 million piece of equipment to be.
By now, there are a number of things going through my head. Firstly, this is difficult. Which is probably obvious and I was under no illusions that it would be easy, but the sheer level of instruments and information that a pilot looks at and receives is massive and ever-changing.
The other thing that’s painfully obvious is that controlling the plane is physically tiring. The steering column is heavy but responsive. Bob likens the movements to a car’s steering wheel. When you start driving, you think that you have to pull the wheel back and forth, but you soon realise that subtle movements will do that.
A jet’s steering column is similar except: a) there are four directions you can go and you have to pay attention to them all and b) the plane weighs about 174,200 pounds and is contending with wind, weather and atmospheric pressure so doesn’t always go exactly where you’d like it to.
Training
The simulators form a vital part of pilot training, be they cadets (Aer Lingus, Stobart Air and Cityjet have simulators on-site) or those taking the step up from smaller planes to jets.
Many will spend four-hour blocks being run through everything from taking off in great weather to landing on one engine. The training is intensive, but it has to be, given the nature of the job.
That job being one that is in huge demand. The global boom in air travel means that Europe alone needs a lot of new pilots. According to Boeing, the world’s largest aeroplane manufacturer, 104,000 new commercial airline pilots will be needed in Europe over the next 20 years. UK regional airline Flybe recently confirmed that the airline’s expansion plans are being held back by a shortage of trained pilots. Last February, US airline group Republic Airways filed for bankruptcy, blaming a pilot shortage for forcing it to ground planes.
While airlines used to fund training in the past now it is, primarily, trainee pilots themselves who finance their own training. This has resulted in a growing trend of people who have had financially successful careers in technology or finance industries, for example, using their earnings to fund their training.
With that in mind a pilot training exhibition, Pilot Careers Live will take place in Croke Park Conference Centre on Saturday 4 March. It will feature talks on training and the working life of a pilot.
Pilot Brian O’Keeffe graduated as a commercial pilot last year after training with Atlantic Flight Training Academy. He now works with Norwegian Airlines flying primarily from Oslo.
“I worked in Australia so that I could finance my training. I would urge anyone interested in a career as a pilot to take the plunge and follow your dreams; it’s a fantastic career. Pilot Careers Live is a great first step where you will learn about how to make your dreams a reality.”
Coming in to land
For Bob, the aviation industry is one of those things you “either love or you don’t”. He’s imparting this knowledge at the same time as guiding me in to Dublin Airport.
Essentially, there is a green rectangle on one instrument known as the localiser, which gives you the centre spot of the runway. As the pilot, you’re trying to line yourself up with that, while occasionally checking the horizon.
Then you’re keeping an eye on the attitude indicator:
Those pink bars supposed to line up with that small black box, but the lines move around, requiring constant slight but firm corrections.
You’re also watching your glideslope, a pink diamond that comes into view closer to the runway, your airspeed, your altitude and various other inputs as well as your heading and the horizon.
As I glide in, I notice that the centre spot of Runway 28 is not exactly in the centre of the plane. So, either they’ve moved the runway, the instruments are wrong or I’ve made a mess of this.
With just around 1,000 feet left, Bob is reminding me to shade to the right – but not too far to the right. With a descent rate of 700 feet a minute, there’s not a lot of time for adjustments or to look at the Poolbeg towers or the Old Airport Road lovingly recreated on my left.
I desperately try to guide the plane to the concrete and then there’s a small bump and, with the barest of margins, the back wheels, or “main bogeys” hit solid ground, avoiding the grass.
Letting Bob handle the parking, I relax for the first time in our short 20-minute flight. My arms are tired from the column and my mind is exhausted from information overload and total concentration.
But I can also see why pilots love flying.
Simtech offer gift vouchers for simulation experiences.
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They don’t investigate, I made a complaint to them two years ago and heard nothing back. I’m back in seetec now again at a huge financial loss to myself, they only reemburse bus travel and fuel, Im not on bus route nor own a car, so I have to pay 30€ a day to get in and out and they still insist I come in twice a week to use a computer that has so many security measures set up I can’t edit my cv if required, I can’t open company pages online to do research before applying. It’s a joke and they don’t care, I got very depressed after the first time, they too, made me feel worthless. They should stop using them by end of 2018
@Sam Glynn: That’s so unfair Sam. When I was on the dole, I was lucky to be able to walk a lot of places. If I had those kind of travel expenses I wouldn’t have had money for rent or food. I don’t know how you do it.
@Lisa Saputo: I’m in massive debt with family members, but I am in middle of long process of applications to a very good carrer job opportunity at the moment. I have told seetec nothing about it as I started process before got put back into their system. Interview in the new year, fingers and toes crossed.
@Sam Glynn: tell them to stick it where the sun don’t shine,block their number.they phoned me last week asking for my PPS number stating that I was still one of their clients,told them to F off I’m working full time now 8 months through a job I got myself.
@Sam Glynn: Where are the investigative journalists to check out the money trail. and who benefits from these companies. and what connections they have in government.
Until we get rid of this government, we have to get used to every decision they make being ultimately motivated by big business interests ,as with Jobpath. Humanity is neither here nor there in their calculations
@Stephen Kavanagh: get rid of the government?
Not until 2020. And they’ll probably be voted in again.
@Chin Feeyin: That’s why we have to vote them out as soon as we get the chance again, the unholy alliance of FF and FG is the complete antithesis of how parliamentary democracy should work
@Stephen Kavanagh: and when you get rid of this government what’s your alternative a Sinn Fein government or more of the same as now realistically there is no alternative but on another note the country in theory can be run by civil servants ( NI for example )
@In my opinion: It’s such pessimistic thinking to think there’s no alternative. There’s always an alternative
@Stephen Kavanagh: on an optimistic hypothetical note do you believe Ireland would be a better place for the unemployed, homeless and working poor in 2023 than it is today if say PBP were elected to government tomorrow and Richard Boyd Barrett became Taoiseach for the next 5 years?
@Stephen Kavanagh: Stephen what makes you so sure the Government coming after Leo will be any better they wont because its going to be another make up of more or less the same FGFF
@Neville Bartos: I’m not sure but I think there is another way of doing things, it doesn’t necessarily have to be socialist but there is a great need for a different approach to politics in this country that isn’t completely wedded to corporate interests
@Stephen Kavanagh: the unfortunate problem is that the corporates are Ireland’s life support system. They keep us employed and paying exorbitantly high amounts of income tax and also VAT on all our purchases which keeps the government and public system running. Although the public system is not producing what it should re housing and health etc it would be worse if we don’t have corporates keeping us all employed.
@Neville Bartos: But corporations are very fickle. here today gone tomorrow, I would never want to base all of my economic forecast on them, we have to at least think about what we would do in their absence
@Neville Bartos: you may as well put Dustin the Turkey as Taoiseach.
@Stephen Kavanagh: their all the same you dick
These companies are telling people to lie on their cv’s and lie in interviews. And look what the state is paying these companies. Absolute joke.
@Dave Barrett: everyone lies on their cv.
@Chin Feeyin: I don’t.
@Chin Feeyin: worst idea ever
@Dave Thomas: yep lying on a CV not the way to go…
@Dave Thomas: well, “exaggarates”.
“Exaggerates”
MANY complaints have gone to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection – total waste of time.
Regina Doherty’s office is still putting out lies last week about JobPath – which we will expose in January along with hundreds of victim statements (yes, in many cases, their names and locations included).
JobPath RIGHT NOW is a future state investigation in the making.
Its abusive.
It’s law breaking.
TD’s at the top have known about all this and more – and we can prove it all.
They continue to lie about it at national and local level.
@Unitedpeople: can’t wait until they are exposed for what they really are,this company was under investigation in the uk for fraud and our shambles of a social protection minister and the rest of govt refuse to acknowledge it.after she is a failed buissness woman,typical of ffg putting these idiots in.
No matter what your qualifications are, they push you in to low paying, zero contract employment, customer service, hospitality, cleaning. It’s all in the brochure. You go there once a week and you are left to your own devices with no one on one attention, applying for jobs that you are over qualified for. You get a consultation once a month where you are told to apply for as many jobs available regardless of your work experience.
I am writing this on behalf of a friend who went through this.
The conpanies have made 150 million. The gov have reduced the unemployment figures from it. 18% of people that went through it got jobs from it. Its been a scheme to benefit the gov and the 2 companies involved.
Many things have been reported to Regina Doherty’s office and Leo Varadkar himself. We can prove this. They continuously refused to either respond or do anything. They stayed silent in the Dail – well except for saying it was a great setup with a success rate of 7% (out of 100%) that has cost the state €150 Million Euro so far.
The 7% success rate is also a lie (one of many) – which we intend to show next month in from of a Dail committee on the 17th – if our invitation to testify to a committee doesn’t suddenly vanish in the meanwhile!
@Unitedpeople: they don’t care. The ultimate I’m alright Jack brigade
Before these private companies were set up Community Employment Supervisors helped participants on Schemes with to get jobs and undertake training, Many did. Supervisors were paid nothing extra for this service.
@Aine O Connor: When I lived in Ireland I sponsored a Community Employment Scheme voluntarily. It was a very good way to enable people who were unemployed to up skill and eventually find meaningful employment. Later I was chairman of the county Local Employment Service Network which had offices throughout the county geared towards getting long term unemployed back to work. In reality there is a small cohort of people who simply do not want to work and want to milk the system. There are also people who for disability reasons are not able to work. Those who genuinely want work will find a pathway to employment. The system also disincentives a certain cohort from working because the benefits of staying unemployed outweigh the benefits of being employed.
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair:
Community Employment Schemes are the backbone of many voluntary organizations who are doing invaluable work for their communities. I also sponsored a C.E. Scheme and served on the Board of a Community Development Group and a County Partnership Company. I also worked for a few years as a Supervisor of a rural Scheme . Many of the participants were men who when younger worked on buildings and on farms. Most were good workers and many applied for scheme they told me to alleviate loneliness and isolation . They were quite content to work their last few years on scheme and contribute to the community as well. Those who were genuinely interested in training and getting a job were successful. There will always be a minority who do not want to work.
Getting rid of it has nothing to do also with many physical and mental abuses that are about to be reported to the public in January then?
Right. Got it!
IT WAS NEVER NEEDED IN THE FIRST PLACE ANOTHER WASTE OF TAX PAYERS MONEY
That’s because Jobpath might be illegal under the EU rules like the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Title I: Dignity : Article 5 – Slavery / Forced Labour.
“1. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.
2. No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.”
Getting people to work a full week for 3 months in order to be entitled to their dole is forced labour… No wonder Jobpath is being gotten rid of as getting people to work a full week in order to get a dole payment of 100 euros is illegal or at the time 180 euros for me. Nothing extra for food or for travel and while on it…
Also…
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Title IV: Solidarity can be another part to this as well… But what will the government do now to reclass the unemployed as not being unemployed to play their figures???
https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/search-on-treaties/-/conventions/rms/090000168007cf93
“Article 12 – The right to social security
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to social security, the Parties undertake:
1 to establish or maintain a system of social security;
2 to maintain the social security system at a satisfactory level at least equal to that necessary for the ratification of the European Code of Social Security;
3 to endeavour to raise progressively the system of social security to a higher level;
4 to take steps, by the conclusion of appropriate bilateral and multilateral agreements or by other means, and subject to the conditions laid down in such agreements, in order to ensure: a equal treatment with their own nationals of the nationals of other Parties in respect of social security rights, including the retention of benefits arising out of social security legislation, whatever movements the persons protected may undertake between the territories of the Parties;
b the granting, maintenance and resumption of social security rights by such means as the accumulation of insurance or employment periods completed under the legislation of each of the Parties.
Article 13 – The right to social and medical assistance
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to social and medical assistance, the Parties undertake:
1 to ensure that any person who is without adequate resources and who is unable to secure such resources either by his own efforts or from other sources, in particular by benefits under a social security scheme, be granted adequate assistance, and, in case of sickness, the care necessitated by his condition;
2 to ensure that persons receiving such assistance shall not, for that reason, suffer from a diminution of their political or social rights;
3 to provide that everyone may receive by appropriate public or private services such advice and personal help as may be required to prevent, to remove, or to alleviate personal or family want;
4 to apply the provisions referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of this article on an equal footing with their nationals to nationals of other Parties lawfully within their territories, in accordance with their obligations under the European Convention on Social and Medical Assistance, signed at Paris on 11 December 1953.
Article 14 – The right to benefit from social welfare services
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to benefit from social welfare services, the Parties undertake:
1 to promote or provide services which, by using methods of social work, would contribute to the welfare and development of both individuals and groups in the community, and to their adjustment to the social environment;
2 to encourage the participation of individuals and voluntary or other organisations in the establishment and maintenance of such services.
Article 15 –The right of persons with disabilities to independence, social integration and participation in the life of the community
With a view to ensuring to persons with disabilities, irrespective of age and the nature and origin of their disabilities, the effective exercise of the right to independence, social integration and participation in the life of the community, the Parties undertake, in particular:
1 to take the necessary measures to provide persons with disabilities with guidance, education and vocational training in the framework of general schemes wherever possible or, where this is not possible, through specialised bodies, public or private;
2 to promote their access to employment through all measures tending to encourage employers to hire and keep in employment persons with disabilities in the ordinary working environment and to adjust the working conditions to the needs of the disabled or, where this is not possible by reason of the disability, by arranging for or creating sheltered employment according to the level of disability. In certain cases, such measures may require recourse to specialised placement and support services;
3 to promote their full social integration and participation in the life of the community in particular through measures, including technical aids, aiming to overcome barriers to communication and mobility and enabling access to transport, housing, cultural activities and leisure.
Article 16 – The right of the family to social, legal and economic protection
With a view to ensuring the necessary conditions for the full development of the family, which is a fundamental unit of society, the Parties undertake to promote the economic, legal and social protection of family life by such means as social and family benefits, fiscal arrangements, provision of family housing, benefits for the newly married and other appropriate means.
Article 17 –The right of children and young persons to social, legal and economic protection
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of children and young persons to grow up in an environment which encourages the full development of their personality and of their physical and mental capacities, the Parties undertake, either directly or in co-operation with public and private organisations, to take all appropriate and necessary measures designed:
1a to ensure that children and young persons, taking account of the rights and duties of their parents, have the care, the assistance, the education and the training they need, in particular by providing for the establishment or maintenance of institutions and services sufficient and adequate for this purpose;
b to protect children and young persons against negligence, violence or exploitation;
c to provide protection and special aid from the state for children and young persons temporarily or definitively deprived of their family’s support;
2 to provide to children and young persons a free primary and secondary education as well as to encourage regular attendance at schools.
Article 18 – The right to engage in a gainful occupation in the territory of other Parties
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to engage in a gainful occupation in the territory of any other Party, the Parties undertake:
1 to apply existing regulations in a spirit of liberality;
2 to simplify existing formalities and to reduce or abolish chancery dues and other charges payable by foreign workers or their employers;
3 to liberalise, individually or collectively, regulations governing the employment of foreign workers;
and recognise:
4 the right of their nationals to leave the country to engage in a gainful occupation in the territories of the other Parties. ” Does Jobpath clash with Article 14?
Only people benefiting is company owners,FG squandering millions and FF waffle as if they can do nothing about it,which is an insult to the public.
@@mdmak33: And the IMF directing that nonsense as debt is good when the tax payers ends up with those bills?
In a period of full employment there shouldn’t be anyone out of work for more than 12 months. You’re either in work, in education or training to improve your qualifications and experience to find work, or have a genuine disability. Other than that you shouldn’t be paid a cent.
@An bhearna: Like to know how much Government provided education and subsidy you’ve appropriated to get you this far, enormous I’d bet, but wasted judging by your piss pour standard of trolling.
Training and self improvement the lazy mantra of the right wing. But then they fight tooth and nail against improved working conditions for people who do the essential work in our society.
Private companies with snouts in the trough.
Slave labour
Jobpath more like cowpath!
I’m seeing jobs advertised everywhere these days … my sympathy for unemployed people is dwindling ….. I moved to Dublin on 21k a year during the recession … and paid college loans out of that… so I am entitled to be smug now ….
You just be crazy being self employed in Ireland now unless you make millions, anything goes wrong and your f… as no state body will help you especially the social welfare. You hit hard times with illness then your double f…. and all you get is stupidity and anger from any government body you try to ask help off… They just refuse to help you if your self employed, so why would anyone be then?
@TamuMassif2019:
Not all cases, just ask Regina herself. She ran her company into the ground and stung the revenue & banks for over €100k. No bother, become a Fine Gael member, leech of the tax payer and get a full ministerial pension. Qualifications and proper credentials? Meh, they’re only for muppets.
http://www.thejournal.ie/regina-doherty-defends-liquidation-of-company-2781806-May2016/?amp=1
@Milk The Drones: But as I always say about politics, it’s not what you know but whom and the secret to life here is on every pub door… Pull and Push?
Totally a scam there to bully unfortunate people into unsuitable jobs…. speaking from family experience
Useless fool
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