Originally Posted by
sonicbum
Absolutely.
The problem is IMHO about the suitability of the candidates in the industry. We can take the Air Force as an example ; they have always worked with very small numbers compared to the airlines world (for obvious reasons) and thus the selection process has always been very demanding in terms of psychomotor skills. Now it is definitely a different job but on the other hand the civilian job went to the extreme with a race to the bottom whereas we need to demonstrate that the most average pilot is suitable to safely operate in a cockpit and we need to design rules and procedures around that.
The wrong assumption is that single pilot highly automated airliners and/or pilotless aircrafts will get rid of the human weakness component because the bar today is set at an incredibly low level.
Experienced, knowledgeable and skilled pilots are expensive, or at least they should be and this does not go well with ultra low cost business models.
It's true that for civil flying that high psychomotor skills are not required but the pendulum is shifting to the other side. In developing countries because the pilot salaries are high as compared to other professions some people with financial resources and some gambling with what they have but with very little aptitude are drawn to flying. Flying club is a business and won't turn down a customer who is shelling out 100000 USD no matter how poor is his performance. TRTOs are just an extension of this business they do not turn away any mediocre trainee who shells out 20000USD. This chain continues in the airline from poor copilot to poor Capt to poor trainer. Then one day someone finds the runway is short, the rain is too much or flight time is too tiring. There were five RW excursions in India last monsoon despite all the criticism of RW condition and contamination etc without exception all of them had landed halfway down the RW because they were high and fast. In one case the pilot turned down ATC offer of suitable RW to opt for downwind landing and got stuck beyond the end in the gravel. On ATC query about ops normal he confirmed in the affirmative but when given taxi instruction asked for a tow. It's hilarious.