The helicopter instructors at East Coast Aero Club spent today doing some recurrent training in simulated engine failures and 180-degree autorotations with a Vietnam vet who has tens of thousands of hours of helicopter time. For 25 years, he ran a helicopter flight school with a lot of Japanese students. “They would come to our school through the U.S. Commercial license and then go over there for about 10 hours of training and some ground school. They would take their checkride in an R22 and fail the first few times. Most of them gave up after that.”
How hard is the check ride in Japan?
“I would fail it,” this expert pilot said. “The checkride takes 2.5 hours and involves a three-leg cross-country. You aren’t allowed to use any navigation equipment. No GPS. No VOR. The instructor forces you to fly off course for 15 or 20 minutes. Then you have to use an E6B to calculate an intercept angle to the original course and figure out a new ETA and fuel consumption.”
You have to use an E6B while keeping your hands on the flight controls? “Yes.”
We went around the room. Paul said “I couldn’t use an E6B while flying an R22.” Joris said “I couldn’t use an E6B while flying an airplane.” I said “I don’t think I could use an E6B while sitting here at this conference table eating a sandwich.”
Now we know why it is rare to find a Japanese who is unqualified for his or her job.
My girlfriend lived in Japan for a year, her response when I sent her a link to this story : “not surprising! They train for like 15 years just to make Suchi!!!”
This sounds a bit urban-legendish, filtered through several retellings, perhaps with some language issues contributing to the mix. Not unlike the sushi-chef-15-year thing–most sushi here is made by Japanese housewives who have returned to the workforce after their kids are older, working part-time jobs at local supermarkets and eki-mae take-out sushi shops.
After I got my large motorcycle license at a Honda school, I did some “post grad” at another Honda training facility in Northern Saitama, where they also did helicopter training. I expect that helicopter licenses are not unlike motorcycle licenses, albeit much stricter.
If you just walk into a police station to take the motorcycle test, you’ll have a hard time, says the grapevine. They’re very strict. But if you take your motorcycle training at a commercial facility (and pay the big bucks), the police know you’ve gone through a certain curriculum and been flunked back and made to repeat hours if you weren’t performing at the expected level. (You even get a battery of personality tests, including Rorschach, and counseling if you don’t pass those.)
The school trains you for taking the test towards the end of your course, not the exact course, which is only given you the day before, but all the elements. The test judges are independent, not associated with the school, but the test takes place at the school. They do flunk people, but it’s a small percentage. The large corporations that run the schools and the police seem to have an understanding, and the general concensus is that part of what you get when you pay for commercial training in a domestic school is a guarantee that unless you’re really inept, you’ll get your license.
I expect the same is true for aviation licenses. If you come in from outside Japan, they’re going to put you through the wringer. If you got your training from Honda or the like, it won’t be as hard. This is partially rational and partially because of bias against overseas training and partially because the large corporations have amakudari ex-government officials on staff in sinecure positions (and will continue to hire more, as long as the agencies they come from don’t screw with their business models by flunking all their students).
There’s no hundred-dollar-hamburger hobby civil aviation in Japan to speak of. There are college sailplane clubs. That’s about it.
Planes and helicopters are used for business. Pilots are employed by companies. Student pilots are sent to school by their employers, and companies have no trouble getting their airplane and helicopter pilots licensed.
I fly with plenty of Japanese students. They’re generally studious, and I’m envious of their English skills. Which is to say, it’s a lot better than my Japanese. But I have not seen the kind of superhuman piloting skill you are talking about. One thing I do notice is that since they don’t fly very much, the Japanese students spend a lot of time THINKING about flying. They also use technology (videotaping from the ground while being coached on a sequence, for example) in very creative ways.
They come to the U.S. because they can’t get anything done at home: aviation doesn’t exist over there. They have one Pitts in the entire country, and you can’t rent it, let alone rent it solo. There is no aerobatic training, no aerobatic competition, and every one of them has told me that renting a 152 solo in Japan is more expensive than renting an Extra 300 here (including my fee as the instructor).
We have several Japanese students who literally get on an airliner, come to California for a few days, fly every day, then take the metal tube back home. Repeat monthly. And it’s cheaper for them than renting a 152 locally.
By the way, why use the E-6B at all? I find that for most in-flight slide rule tasks, I can approximate the answer in my head with sufficient accuracy to meet the PTS standards. Certainly to get back on course after the kind of exercise you describe on the Japanese helicopter checkride.
I was looking for info about how to get a helicopter licence in Tokyo (where I’m mouving to pretty soon) and I end up to your blog.
The reason why I’m sending you this e-mail is that I can’t find anything about helicopter training in Tokyo so by any chance would you have some for me ? like english website or places in Tokyo, etc…
Thank you very much for your help.
Hélène