Originally Posted by
Olympia463
I wish you well in your airline career. You certainly do not fit in to to the stereotype mentioned in so many posts.
The most important point you make relates to 'handling skills' which has to be a vital property of a pilot. When I was teaching gliding we used to blank off the instruments in the front seat on the flights just before we were thinking of sending someone solo. You only get one shot at landing a glider - there is no 'go around' available. Also flying at a club with many other gliders around, does wonders for your SA. And finally when you get to flying cross country, the skill of selecting a landing spot when you run out of lift has to be acquired. I believe that glider pilots who go on to power flying and airline flying have had a valuable introduction to real flying. Several people I sent solo flew in the RAF and a few with airlines.
There are P2F FO that cannot land a 737 with 2000 hours in calm winds cavok...just to give an idea of what is happening. Flying single pilot is almost the norm in certain outfit..problem is the captain also have 2500 hours TT.... and came from the same path. Definitely avoiding all ACMI charter and bottom feeder ..most of them from Eastern Europe