Originally Posted by
squib
So many people today say guys don't make it through training now due to the lack of experience. How do you explain the 05-08 era of guys hired with 500hrs TT that nearly all made it through? Same airplane today as then, except today the candidates should be more "qualified." If you say it was the dire need of the industry for pilots, then why aren't these guys getting through now with 3x the experience, and also such a pilot shortage?
How many of those pilots back in 05-08 learned instrument flying on the G1000? There is a serious lack of skills in needle ball and airspeed when the glass display goes dead or just stops working fully.
There will always be those 250 or 500 hour wonders....but in general there has been a paradigm shift in the level of airmanship that candidates possess. Some of those low time wonders at least had enough experience with raw data that moving to glass was merely an enhancement to their base skills.
With glass now there seems to be a step that is skipped. I was just having a discussion with a colleague who said that one college program teaches all their primary students in Citabrias before moving onto aircraft that have all the modern conveniences.
Do all students need to go out and get tailwheel instruction? No...but there is a benefit to having a grasp of the airplane from a basic level through instrument. It is that path that has will deliver a higher percentage of pilots who will be successful as the layers of sophistication are added.