One guy even told me: “ You know what would be cool? If the aircraft can take off, cruise and land by itself it would be the perfect job”.
There are too many cadets who think the job is easy money early in life and are not 'total aviation people'. IMHO the pay for apprentices is too high at entry point. If the pay was reduced, drastically, for the first coupe of years, until the apprenticeship was served, (and 100% Pay 2 Fly was disallowed) it might weed out the wrong stuff. People like the above, IMHO, would not be suitable command material, i.e. not the sort of guy you want up front on a bad-hair day.
All this talk about raw data causing reduced safety etc. BS. In 80's, before EFIS, raw data was the norm, other than an ILS. That was the only time the FD was coupled to the approach. You might be able to set up a HDG + V/S for an NPA using FD, but that was too distracting. A visual was the norm, when allowed, or as in Greece, necessary. Raw data was the only way. Why did the advent of EFIS stop that behaviour? Because DFO's, CP's HOT's said so. Why? It has done nothing to improve safety. If you are going to use the EFIS kit then you need to extend the circuit to outside OM. This extends the finals. The reason? to reduce the number of GA's. That is money. To improve safety you improve skills and knowledge, you do not inhibit basic manoeuvres and dilute skills and turn pilots into trained monkeys, who know only one method to do anything. You train and trust thinking crews. IMHO.
Last edited by RAT 5; 12th Feb 2018 at 12:33.