[quote=skybolt;612394]
Part One. Pilots who have not learned their craft have been allowed to sit in the seat of an airliner. More later.
Part Two. The airline pilot certification system is not capable of catching the pilots who don't YET belong in the seat of an airplane carrying people for hire.
Good post, Skybolt. Almost any certification and training process will allow a few incapable people to slip by. I am thinking of an F-14 crash in the southeast during the early 90's. The pilot had been visiting family and decided to show them a max climb. He pulled a lot of G's climbing more or less straight up into an overcast. He lost situational awareness and control of the aircraft. His RIO had control of the ejection seats but was blacked out due to G-LOC and did not punch them out. The aircraft crashed and both were killed. This was the second aircraft this pilot had crashed due to poor judgement.
About my first point. For decades, a pilot spent many years as a civilian actually flying airplanes. Either as an instructor, or freight dawg flying checks, or any one of hundreds of other positions that allowed/forced the pilot to gain real stick and rudder time. Military pilots accelerated the process, but the large majority of their time was spent either training, or being trained.
During this period there were still crashes due to poor airmanship or a lack of judgement. I favor requiring an ATP to be hired by a Part 121 carrier. However, I cannot help but worry about how difficult it might make it for someone to begin a carrier. I do not think CFI or other jobs that woild give someone the opportunity to gain experience are easy to find right now. The economy has also allowed airlines to raise their minimums. I doubt anyone is being hired at 500/50 right now.
Originally Posted by
RockyBoy
The problem is that all airlines train "approach to stalls" and not stall and spin recovery. When you recover from an approach to stall you add power and maintain pitch or in some aircraft increase pitch. After doing this over and over again in the sim, I can see why one would pull up rather than nose over in an actual stall. If you pulled back 50 times in the sim when you got the shaker, you'll pull back when you get the shaker in the airplane.
Great point.
Originally Posted by
KC10 FATboy
The difference is, we are supposed to be profesional airline pilots. If you can't read your flight manuals and learn the differences between approach to and post stall recovery and/or ask for the training when you have 5 minutes in your recurrent training, then you probably aren't a professional airline pilot.
At this point in our careers, we are armed with enough tools to figure out what our strong and low points are. And we should be using that information to make oursevles better, safer pilots.
I agree; A professional should always be learning.
The Dash Whisperer