Originally Posted by
FlyingStone
OK, a practical case. In EASA land, one can go 9 months between simulator checks. So 8 months and 29 days later, after only watching the other pilot do it 50 times in the meanwhile, you finally get to do it for real when it's 30 knots across on a short wet runway at night. Would you be comfortable landing the aircraft?
Landing is a predominantly a motor skill and needs to be practiced. Just as a student pilot will learn the skill to some extent by watching an instructor demonstrate the landing, they will need to do it themselves again and again to master it. Same applies to recency.
100% agree.
It is like being a very experienced coach of a tennis player ; you notice the details from the bench and call it out in order for the player to correct his movements.
Now if the coach - whose last game was 20 years before - takes the racket and starts playing against Nadal, what is going to happen ?
Landings need the theory first and then practice, practice and practice.