Originally Posted by
Uplinker
I still can't believe that any crew would continue accelerating on the runway 50+ kts past Vr without having rotated or RTO'ed well beforehand, so I don't understand what could have gone wrong, but some general thoughts:
a) Today's pilots don't always go from flight school to simple turbo-prop to simple jet, then big jet; building valuable experience on the way. Thus, actual flying is not being cemented before they are faced with very comprehensive automation.
b) Prospective pilot employees now have to pass ridiculous time-limited computer tests and puzzles and psychometric tests which tell nothing about actual piloting ability.
c) A safe flying culture is one where problems and mistakes, including minor ones, are used as a learning tool for the greater good. Lessons from mistakes have been learned many times over, and some are sadly quite literally written in blood.
On a) : Having said that, even a 10hr pilot of a PA-28 knows that you pull the stick back at the appropriate airspeed to take-off !
On b) : I personally think it is high-time that HR kept their noses out of pilot recruitment. Having to pass 20 maths questions in 12 minutes for example, or do computer puzzles and word games, proves nothing about a pilot's ability to pilot, or their situational awareness, or their experience of bad weather flying.
We seem to be going backwards in aviation safety. We have seen an aircraft take off with both engine cowls unsecured, because nobody did a walk-around. We have seen botched go-arounds. We have seen a "pilot" hold full back-stick up at FL 3xx for an extended period of time.
Something fundamental appears to be being missed by airlines and HR - the fundamental ability to fly and be a pilot.
On c) : Airlines which try to suppress mistakes and errors by passive aggression, (e.g. interviews or bullying for going outside SOPs or for taking the AP out), are treading a very dangerous path. Overall safety will not improve because under that sort of regime pilots will not step outside the automation or report incidences, and therefore lessons will not be learned.
Exactly Uplinker , the HR circus must be taken out from this clowns that judge a pilot regarding is ability to mentally calculate the square root of 19213 or so. It is difficult to understand why in modern “ aviation “ a cadet pilot with 200 hr is considered safe , while thousand of others with 10/20.000 hr of flying are useless just because their last flight was 12/24 months ago.