Military pilots fly for Air NZ

Highly skilled military pilots are flying Air New Zealand-owned passenger aircraft to boost their training.

Air Force pilots Jonathan Pound and Rudyard Andrew, both in their early 20s, are working as first officers on Air Nelson flights, flying 50-seat Q300 Bombardiers between Blenheim, Wellington and Nelson.

The loan is part of a trial between Air New Zealand, which owns Air Nelson, and the RNZAF to help train pilots on "glass cockpit" aircraft.

The Air Force is upgrading its fleet of Boeing 757s and C130 Hercules aircraft from mechanical dials to a modern cockpit with computer monitors - hence the glass cockpit moniker.

The two pilots have been flying with Air Nelson since February. The trial is expected to continue for at least another year.

Squadron Leader Kavae Tamariki said the purpose of the trial was not to gain flying hours and the domestic flying experience bore little resemblance to the pilots' future role - flying in and out of hostile areas, high-risk low-level flying, search and rescue, surveillance and flying to the Antarctica.

But flying hours on the modern Q300 Bombardiers gave the pilots valuable experience in a computerised cockpit, similar to that of the upgraded military aircraft.

The Air Force did not have flight simulators for all its aircraft to help with training, he said. The Air Nelson deployment provided "another option for training".

The Air Force got the benefit of training, he said, and Air New Zealand "gets a co-pilot. It works both ways".

Both Air New Zealand and the Air Force say the two military pilots are "additional to a full pilot complement" at Air Nelson but the New Zealand Air Line Pilots Federation disputes that.

President Mark Rennell said the organisation did not believe the airline could run the monthly Air Nelson pilot roster without the help of the two Air Force pilots.

The airline had refused to show the federation a monthly roster proving the Air Nelson flights could be carried out using existing pilots, without the additional manpower of the RZNAF pilots.

"That's disappointing," Rennell said. "We believe they are relying on those pilots to get the job done and we do object to that because that means there are two other pilots who could be employed."

While the federation could understand the two-way benefits for the airline and the RNZAF, it would be "very, very vocal" if there were any pilot redundancies while Air Force pilots still held co-pilot positions.