A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Business Aviation Services Editor

Curt Epstein

China is facing a chronic shortage of pilots to fly its growing fleet of business aircraft. Moderating an ABACE show seminar on crew training in Shanghai yesterday, consultant Christopher Jackson said the current backlog of orders from China indicates a need for an additional 500 to 1,000 private aviation pilots. He said operators in China typically need a ratio of five pilots per aircraft.


Quotas imposed by the Chinese government on the number of foreign pilots allowed to work in the country and restrictions as to where they can fly, along with language and culture barriers, all underline the need for a robust indigenous general-aviation pilot training program, which currently does not exist. Of the flight academies and training schools that are in operation in China, virtually all of the pilots are destined for the commercial aviation sector.


Another issue is that potential Chinese pilots who undertake their flight training in the U.S., there currently exist differences for certification and procedures between the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to Scott Jiang,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aviation-international-news/2012-02-04/cirrus-restructures-nd-debt-presses-jet">Cirrus Aircraft’s</a>&nbsp;director for China. In one instance, unlike FAA requirements CAAC requires pilots who successfully complete the training programs from providers such as Simuflite or FlightSafety International to complete an additional 50 hours of monitored in-country flights and landings before they are certified.


“We have accepted the fact that corporate aviation in China is in its infancy,” said Rich Iudice, Dassault Falcon’s director of flight operations, speaking as a group spokesman. “There are many obstacles to overcome, so that the operators here that want to operate business aircraft have the pilots available to do that.”


Among the possible solutions the group has suggested to CAAC is that the agency allows the additional flight hours to be performed on simulators as line-orientated flight training (Loft).&nbsp;“We need to convince CAAC that we are trying to help them,” said Iudice. “We’re trying to help Chinese operators get this done.”

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