Originally Posted by
Captain Nomad
The problem with competency based training is that you can be deemed competent on the day under a particular set of circumstances, but there is no guarantee that you will perform to the same standard tomorrow, next week.....
This is why a 250 hour pilot can get out of their depth much quicker despite having good training and good SOPs.
The exact same can be said for any pilot who’s experience isn’t relevant to that situation.
A great example is Colgan 3407 in 2009. The first officer had roughly 1500hrs of GA experience before being hired by the airline, but on the CVR of the flight is talking about having never been in icing conditions as bad as they encountered and not feeling comfortable about it. Her prior experience as an instructor in sunny Arizona didn’t prevent her from being out of her depth for a situation she had no prior experience in. Yet airlines in Scandinavia can put 250hr cadets into the right hand seat of jets and turboprops in extremely poor winter conditions and have a great operational safety record.