At last, full marks to a Regulator who has bitten the bullet and addressed the scary fact that, out there, are pilots that cannot fly to save themselves - literally
ICAO study groups as well as State regulators,would be well advised to study the content of this CAA Safety Notice and ensure the message is absorbed by operators under their jurisdiction.
The document succinctly addresses the trend with some operators towards the dilution of simulator training exercises for type ratings and IPC to the extent that most sessions are primarily dedicated to full use of automatics, usually accompanied by a plethora of often unnecessary company mandated SOP call-outs and superfluous briefings. Valuable simulator time, which could be used for pure flying skill practice, is thus wasted. Same problem six months later.
The CAA Safety Notice should used as a template for the inclusion in simulator training of pure flying skill exercises - separate from procedural instrument flying. Only then will personal flying skills of pilots be improved from the current mediocre.