Originally Posted by
CanoePilot
Thankfully those days are over and knowing what kind of blots hold the engine on the pylon is useless info. Training is more practical in this day in age and not ego driven by a few eggheads in the training department.
You're young (obviously). There is no such thing as "useless info" when it concerns your aircraft. There might not be anything you can necessarily do about a particular malfunction, but by having the level of systems knowledge that Captjns talks about, you can KNOW how your craft has been affected by the loss of a system or component. What you are alluding to is one of the things that are eroding the importance of our profession. Pilots are becoming button pushing monkeys. When all you have to do is read a checklist, and push the right button or throw the right switch, and live with the consequences of those actions; an intelligent thinking being at the controls is really not necessary. Couple that with dispatch making your divert decisions for you and what are we left with? Maybe you are comfortable with that. Frankly, I'm not. Over the North Atlantic in the middle of the night, as a passenger I would want to believe that there is a competent individual at the controls, not just someone that had a "crash course" in flying. Perhaps it is coming to that, and you as a "professional" feel that minimal knowledge about your aircraft is sufficient. If that is the case and that feeling is more rampant out there, it does not bode well for the future of this industry as a well paying one. Anybody that can read will do. As a matter of fact, they could put 1 "captain" onboard, and sell the FO seat to anybody that can read and is willing to sit up front for the entire flight...
Oh, and what's a "blot"?