Originally Posted by
PRS Guitars
I’m not happy to see this. You get a decent airplane manager who has very little “stick and rudder” time, experience or judgement. Everything goes fine until one day when the crap hits the fan, and the lack of the above shows in spades. Now imagine both pilots with that experience.
It’s why I feel more comfortable with American pilots up front...pretty good chance 1 of them has a solid stick and rudder background.
I haven't been on these forums for very long, so have been reluctant to say that kind of thing. And to be honest, the airlines have done a very good job training pilots to follow their systemised procedures and things have been very, very safe. But I can't help but think with more and more people getting pushed through the funnel faster and faster, with less and less real world stick and rudder experience, at some point it is going to bite the industry in the arse.
And somewhat related, I'd bet if you put many of the younger/newer pilots in a taildragger with a 6-pack, they wouldn't be able to fly coordinated or land it with minimal energy. Why? To them, that doesn't matter - it not real flying anyway. I'd be curious how many of the kids have read Langewiesche's "Stick and Rudder".