flyer61 wrote:Lootman
Having spent a goodly amount of my working life involved in Airline Pilot training and examining I wanted to make a comment about 1500 hours flying versus 250 hours. Basically it comes down to what goes on in those hours. 1500 hours flying round in blue skies in a bug smasher is no substitute for a carefully crafted course (that includes 250 hours of flying) to produce an 'airline pilot'. Modern airliners are complex pieces of machinery that require expensive specialist training to be able to operate effectively. You do not get this down at the local aero club building flying hours. Whilst i acknowledge for a time their was very much a worry that the industry was producing 'children of magenta' that has been recognised and the training mitigates it.
As an aside London Fire Service could probably learn from the aviation industry in how to handle situations when things go away from the script/checklist. I wonder if their leadership will reach out to other industries for ideas and advice on how to train their 'Fire Captains'.
As to the MAX and it's future what will happen to Ryanair if this isn't resolved quickly. Will MOL lose his competitive advantage as he ends up flying round in 'old' 737's with a higher fuel burn than easyJets and others Airbus NEO's. MOL seems to have doubled down on his bet with the Max, he has been right about most things, on this, time will tell.
What a fantastic job you've had. I wonder if I may venture to ask a question please? I was told that in the RAF that pilot training will at some point select those with "slightly" faster reflex's to fly "fighter" jets and those with slightly slower reflex's to fly helicopters. I am genuinely not sure if this is true or not.
But it struck me that the ability to "think and act well" in an emergency could make a difference to the outcome. With a cacophony of "warnings" constantly going off in the cockpit do the "engineers" need to consider a point at which designed in safety alerts actually become overwhelming to the senses and create in themselves a problem for the pilots to overcome or does the training rely upon the pilots ability to "think over" all the noise?
I think MOL is underthinking the amount of information that is "out there" at any point in time. The internet really does make information available very quickly. And nowadays most people expect to fly and live. 50 years ago the risk was "ours" to take. As you say time will tell ... but I think MOL isn't hedging his bet too well and of course that's his gamble to take.
AiYn'U