Originally Posted by
Red69
Not a cadet, just a realist who can see what’s happening in this industry. I trust you don’t fly any European or Asian airlines as their pilots haven’t battled through GA to meet strict Austronaut standards?
I’ve flown as PIC in Asia with a variety of nationalities with varying backgrounds, from GA backgrounds (Pakistani and Nepalese GA stories are some of the best!) to cadets to ex military and all the way to decades of airline experience.
Whilst there were some outliers who varied from the norm to both ends of the spectrum (some fantastic cadets or some truly awful experienced airline guys), there was a clear difference in the different backgrounds in how they handled things in the cockpit when things got rather busy or out of the norm.
Generally, those with experience outside of the environment we were in, could multi-task much better, kept better situational awareness, and were overall much better at keeping the whole picture in check and had a Plan B and Plan C ready to go should Plan A start to not work. And good, efficient plans.
So while you might have a cadet who can fly the plane when things are inside a “normal window”, it’s keeping it efficient and flowing well while still operating the aircraft within its safety margins when things aren’t going as you expected that takes years to master.