A periodic award to an individual, group or organisation that, in the opinion of the Court of the Guild, and with the endorsement of the Central Flying School, has made an outstanding contribution toward the achievement of excellence in the delivery of flying training or instructional standards.

2010 awarded to:  CAPTAIN DIETER HARMS

Dieter Harms was born in 1940 and started in aviation some 47 years ago when he joined Lufthansa German Airlines retiring in 2005, by which time he held a command on the Boeing 747-400.

He was head of the Lufthansa Pilot School in Bremen from 1980 to 1990 and is often regarded as the father of Lufthansa Flight Training, although he did not actually found the school. In 1990 the school in Bremen was re-designated Lufthansa Flight Training and Dieter Harms remained as CEO until eventual retirement in 2005.  During his period in office he developed new training methods and introduced the use of turbo-prop aircraft for a bridge to eventual graduation on swept-wing jet airliners.  This was the first school in the world to adopt turbine powered bridge training.  The school graduated over 7,500 professional pilots during his term in office and is recognised as one of the world's leading pilot training academies.

Captain Harms felt, however, that the training undertaken in the late 1990s was not what was required for commercial airline pilots since it failed to take into account the fact that in the airline world the great majority of aircraft are operated only by two pilots and, for safety, it was absolutely essential that they worked as a team with only one objective: the safe operation of the flight.

At that time all professional pilot training was provided to meet the requirement of a single pilot operation which could lead to two individuals crewing the aircraft rather than a team.  He therefore turned his mind to develop the first new Professional Pilot Qualification for 50 years - namely the Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL).  Gathering a small team together, he developed the training requirements for this qualification which is specifically designed to produce airline pilots to operate in a multi-crew environment. The training requirements for the MPL make use of the latest simulator technologies to ensure that the training is completed to the highest standards, and essentially requires the training to be provided in a multi-crew environment from the very beginning.  This licence includes a type rating on a multi-crew aircraft and became accepted by ICAO late in 2005.  Subsequently, this was adopted by the JAA and today this licence has been accepted by all the leading training providers working with airlines, including in the United Kingdom.  However this achievement goes far beyond Europe with MPL training taking place around the world from Canada to China

A further new feature is the change to competency based training – doing away with the hours based training requirements which have no basis in safe operation.  The MPL is the first ever licence to be issued using this process and again, was promoted by Captain Harms.

Dieter Harms is currently senior advisor in the IATA Training and Qualification Initiative (ITQI) which is set to become the international standard to be adopted by ICAO for all professional pilot training.

The MPL is a very different type of pilot training to that preferred or required for military flying training, or single pilot operations.  Captain Dieter Harms has, however, a significant and outstanding career record in airline flying training and in recognition of his contribution toward the achievement of excellence in this area of aviation operations and consequent improvement of airline flight safety, Captain Dieter Harms is awarded the Central Flying School Guild Trophy.

Previous Winners

2005 Captain Derek Jones

2006 Squadron Leader Anthony N Clements

2007 Squadron Leader Peter Howlett

2008 Hawk Synthetic Training Facility, RAF Valley

2009 Squadron Leader Selwyn Williams

2010 Captain Dieter Harms