Day 2 – Wednesday 9th November
Session 6
Vytis Zalimas, Baltic Aviation Academy
Rusland Muchminov, Deputy Director of Flight Training, AirBridge Cargo
Lifetime Cockpit Challenge: Moving from Soviet to Western Manufactured Aircraft Type
Western aviation training philosophy tremendously differs from Russia/CIS training
philosophy. The best illustration is the concept of the pilot profession itself. Pilots need to
go through five years higher education in the Russia Federation vs. two years Western pilot
training practice and two months of type-rating. In addition to that, Russian aircraft Tu-154
crews are composed of five people, compared to the pilot and a co-pilot in a Boeing or
Airbus. Connecting both schools of practice together is an unexploited field in aviation
training.
Both speakers will illustrate the idea of moving from the Soviet to Western manufactured
aircraft cockpit. The main goal of the session is to connect the best Russian practice and
Western practice together to propose new ideas for pilot training development. Some of the
practical solutions from long years of practice of working with both schools (MCC
adaptation, curves of the training progress, interactive e-learning, psychological profiling,
etc.) will also be presented shortly for the main issue in aviation: aviation safety.