Originally Posted by
ShyGuy
Too many excuses being made for the abinitio 2900 hr pilot in the right seat and the management guy flying his one trip in 3 months in the left seat. Trace his 2900 hrs in terms of fleet (330 and 320) and the legs he's done and it's quickly clear most of his time was spent at cruise babysitting the autopilot. Very little actual stick time. Sully had glider time and he said it had absolutely nothing to do with his outcome at the Hudson, and that he was surprised the media was running with the idea. I get that you have a book to sell, your signature is a link to your book and website so it's only reasonable that you're gonna try and market it.
It is not so simple. How much stick time does ANYONE get above RVSM, or even above 20k? When was the last time YOU hand flew a jet at the cruise altitudes? Now what about with degraded flight controls? At night? In the weather? How much do you really know about how your airplane performs in a real stall at cruise altitude? How much do you really know about simulator modeling of dynamic events? How much do you really understand your aircraft systems? Weather radar? Reflectivity and VIL of convective weather in different regions of the world (does it vary?).
I wrote this book to address all of these issues and draw attention to them, and explain them. It is written such that even those without a technical background (cough, management, cough) can get it, hopefully.
Remember that old joke of glass airplane pilots, a new pilot says "what's it doing now?" while a senior pilot says "it does that sometimes..."? I submit to you that both cases are indicative of inadequate training.
On your last line, yep!