Pilot Training

The Antipodean Mariner heard an astounding assertion from a harbour pilot. The pilot was expressing his disdain at the helicopter pilot who flew him out to his ships. This was expressed by telling the helicopter pilot “that he could qualify to fly a helicopter in a couple of years, but it would take the helicopter pilot fifteen years to get his Masters Certificate to pilot a ship!”

And so the conversation turned on to what applicable ship handling skills the harbour pilot had gained correcting charts, tying up ships and keeping a bridge watch in those fifteen years?

Master and Pilot: Bloomburg/Tim Rue

The traditional path for a harbour pilot is to go to sea as a Cadet, rise through the ranks to Second Mate, obtain a Master’s ticket and then jump into a Port Authority as a trainee Pilot at about 30. The model is surprisingly robust – perhaps not so surprising given that port pilots recruit and train port pilots.

One area where maritime pilotage is woefully behind the technology curve is simulator training. Before a port pilot jumps to the Comments Page, simulators are being used extensively for in-service skills development and emergency training. But simulator training is not being used to fast-track savvy Gen Y’s and so bypassing a cadetship largely spent painting ships and making coffee (for pilots).

The aviation industry recognised and has developed accredited simulator training programmes to put high aptitude individuals in aircraft cockpits. This was in recognition that the growth in global aviation was outstripping military and private aviation’s ability to train flight crews.

The maritime industry is facing a similar crisis with changing crew demographics and the breakdown of the traditional career path. It is entirely feasible to simulator-train an individual in ship handling and deliver a productive employee is 2-3 years. There will no doubt be some stigma and aspersions cast by the old guard. But with an ageing pool of senior officers capable of, or willing to, fulfil pilotage roles something new has to be put into the mix.

Pilotage is a transferable skill - it is not a religious calling or an ancient, secret order.

The Antipodean Mariner

Simulation

Over the course of the next week, a colleague of the Antipodean Mariner will be sitting in a darkened bridge as a group of Pilots ground, collide and generally wreck a new 88,000 DWT bulk carrier in a virtual world.

The AM's company are building two Post-Panamax bulk carriers for a short-haul trade between a mine and refinery. The trade moves about 20 million tonnes of ore a year using a mix of dedictated and standard Panamax bulk carriers. Port rules require any ship larger than Panamax dimensions (225 metre length x 32 metres beam) to have a dispensation, and hence simulation of how the new ships will handle.

Ship simulators are used to train Masters and Pilots in ship handling and emergency procedures. Simulators mow also incorporate 'multi-player missions', where the tug masters have a separate set of controls and can integrate their manoeuvres with the bridge team The bathymetry of the port, tidal currents and topography are used to create an interactive 3D model of the port. The simulators are provided with a library of standard ships -tankers, container ships and bulk carriers. The new Post-Panamax bulkers have been modelled from a library ship and tweaked with the known characteristics of sister ships. Sea trials data, turning circle radius and crash stop distances are entered and validated to make the simulator ship handles as closely as possible to the real ship.

Next week, the Port Pilots will put the ship through a programme of pre-planned manoeuvres in flood and ebb tide, laden and ballast condition and with different tug configurations to establish the operating 'envelope' within the new Post-Panamax can safely arrive and depart. The port is busy, tidal and with high berth occupancy and is always scheduling to move as many ships as possible in the high-water window.

Accurate and realistic ship simulation is a cornerstone of the asset-intensive supply chain infrastructure of ports and shipping. Maybe another post in the offing on fast-track simulator training of port pilots as an alternative to recruiting seafarers.

The Antipodean Mariner