Originally Posted by
742Dash
The European 250 hour pilots come into a much more structured, mature airline environment. Their training is also much more selective and intense than what results from Daddy writing checks to a pilot puppy mill.
You can not begin to compare something like Lufthansa's system to the pre-2013 United States practice of throwing fresh commercial tickets from a puppy mill into the right seat of what were too often poorly run, sloppy regional airlines.
Structure, selectivity, 14 ATP tests and 750 hours of study all sound great. Better yet is the training stop that results when someone proves they don't belong in a cockpit and can't keep paying to re-train until they pass.
However, there's never going to be a valid substitute for experience. Stick and rudder, hand flying, working the scan over and over, hour after hour building foundational skill sets that stay with you for life. That doesn't happen in 250 hours. I don't care how many tests the guy had to take or how structured the programs was.
The reality of modern airline flying is that it doesn't build those skills. You have to have them before you get there. Once a pilot enters an airline cockpit, he's done laying the skill foundation. He'll learn and continue to develop in related areas like CRM, leadership, company specific operations, international ops, etc. But, he's done becoming any better as a hands on pilot.
Pointing to the safety record of airline X as a supporting statistic for them putting 250 hour ab initios into the right seat of their airliners isn't a testament to that training program. It's more likely a testament to the effectiveness and reliability of the automation in modern airliners. The statistics allow a minimally trained pilot to attain a basic level of competence. He can be further trained in CRM, aircraft systems and maximum use of automation. Chances are that he will rarely, if ever, encounter a situation requiring skills beyond those he has developed. When that does happen, we have a scenario like AF447. But, since such events are so rare, it's easy to claim success (and supposed safety) with low time first officers (and some day Captains) who are little more than well trained autopilot operators.
They stay inside the lines and all is well - that's what these training programs bank on. However, we all know there will always be events that require the knowledge, experience and most importantly the skill to operate outside those lines.