Flyby1206

How about foreign airlines who put guys with 200-300hrs in the right seat of a 757/767? Also, I can't count the number of 5000-10000hr pilots I have flown with who don't belong in the cockpit. If you have a solid training foundation then hours are less important, such as Mil flight time being more valuable than civilian.

727C47

i have seen some military guys who have raised my eyebrows an inch or two...and i have seen some civilian guys who would give yeager a run for his money, no disrespect to the old general intended...

PILOTGUY

Any place that teaches a pilot to use the rudder to upright an aircraft is BAD. Sorry, not only rudder, but make sure you put it on the floor, maybe more than once in real rapid succession.

These are huge passenger aircraft, not little Extra 300's. The whole training dept. at AA is beyond retarded for even allowing that to be taught.

Cleared4Tkeoff

There, but for the grace of God, go I...

When learning to fly, I was taught that at any speed less than Va the airplane would stall before structural failure... Then the rudder on 587 snapped off causing the airplane to go down and suddenly Airbus says you can only push the rudder to one side, once... NEVER before had I heard this, at AA or any other outfit for that matter.

We all learned from 587, just like we've learned from nearly every single aviation accident in history... It's easy to condemn AA's training department in hind-sight, but maybe the guy just panicked when he encountered an upset like he'd never experienced before. Until 587 I'd never gotten a wake-turbulence scenario in the sim, now I get one nearly everytime I go to recurrent... Generally it's after a windshear or microburst scenario, which we learned about when Delta went down in DFW. AA's training may not be what the military provides, but I'd put it up against anyone's in the industry.

rickair7777

Pre-587, I would have assumed that I could make vigourous, abrupt rudder inputs below Va or even Vturb (not sure why I would want to make repetetive motions). I always assumed the vert stab/rudder was pretty tough, we always seemed more concerned with damaging the wings.

ERJ135

Don't forget there are a few young (23) Capts that did pay their dues being a CFI and do have experience flying RJ's and Props. Esspecially if they started young. Not all are the 500hr wonder kids.

Cleared4Tkeoff

Bingo...

727C47

hey don't jump on aa to quickly about the a300 flt 587 accident, air transat shed a rudder last year, same airplane, for no good reason, don't like those plastic airplanes, though i must admit the a340-600 is quite impressive,

buddies8

av8r4aa

It takes 8 years to be a junior capt on the saab at American Eagle. So that 23 year old RJ Captain that is living in YOUR crash pad is either blowing smoke or you are. So your guy had to be hired at eagle when he was 11 years old because it take 12 years to be junior captain on the embraer at Eagle.

EagleDriver

It's obvious you've never been near a fighter jet, pilotguy. It has to do with wing loading. The best and sometimes only way to turn a fighter at higher G loads is with rudder. The ailerons are blanked out at high AOA (G-loads). Transport catagory aircraft will roll just as well as fighters with rudder. The higher the wing loading the more effective the rudder becomes. Remember that - it's nice to know information you may need someday!

The instructor at AA that taught this "technique" had an extensive background in military fighters before he arrived at AA. He was very well-respected, most knowledgeable about aeronautical engineering and from what I understand a very talented individual. He and AA made a huge mistake by not researching the difference in load bearing capabilities of fighters vs. transport catagory aircraft. From my personal experience, none of my pilot friends at any major carrier ever thought a tail would fall off their jet because they moved a control surface, especially if the aircraft was below maneuvering speed.

No need to apologize for not understanding complex aerodynamics, you're probably not an aero-engineer or military trained. I do think you owe an apology to the AA training dept. Using a broad brush to catagorize any group of individuals is very immature and incorrect. Making rash statements before you understand the subject can make you appear foolish and misinformed.