Rewriting Shuttle Operations around two-crew flying

When I took over as Chief Flight Instructor, our commercial licence course still treated most flying as single-pilot work with a second person present. That made little sense. The Kestrel light shuttle, which most of our commercial graduates fly first, has two pilots, a crew of three and eight passengers. It operates in the busiest traffic in the solar system, the Earth-Luna-L5 corridor. Almost every serious incident in that corridor involves a breakdown in crew communication, not a technical failure.

So in 2185 we rebuilt Shuttle Operations around two-crew flying from the first day. Students now fly every sortie as either pilot flying or pilot monitoring, swapping roles between legs. Checklists are read aloud and confirmed. Workload is divided explicitly during the methalox ascent, the lunar transfer and the docking at Shackleton Base. And students learn a standard way to challenge a colleague's mistake without drama.

The 12-week course includes 90 simulator hours and 70 hours in the Kestrel. The 34-metre shuttle has a range of 14 AU and cruises at up to 310 km/s, so training sorties are short and intense; on some days students fly two complete Earth-Luna round trips. We also include a short module on the single-pilot Wren Microlifter, since many employers expect shuttle crews to cover surface-to-orbit hops too.

The results have been clear. First-time pass rates on the commercial check ride rose from 79 to 88 per cent. Employers report that our graduates settle into line flying faster. And in three years, no Lumen-trained Kestrel crew has been involved in a reportable communication-related incident.

Tuition is 86,000 credits, including fuel, docking fees and examinations, and many seats are sponsored by passenger lines and launch operators. You need a Private Spaceflight Licence with at least 40 logged hours. The next intake starts on 24 November 2187.

The Commercial Pilot Licence (Orbital) you earn at the end is the gateway to every type rating we teach. It is also, for many pilots, the moment they stop thinking of themselves as students and start thinking of themselves as crew.