Originally Posted by
Alpine Flyer
I have been a trainer/check airman for around 25 years (with some interruptions) and have asked for a mandatory anonymous feedback system in vain for the better part of two decades. I'd appreciate some feedback as I have no way to know whether I have drifted off or am still "on course". Asking for feedback doesn't really help as you're unlikely to get the full truth from someone whose next check you could be presiding over. Our training department offers a voluntary feedback form but there's no output towards trainers from that system.
A line check captain should not manipulate anything on the flight deck without asking the active crew but should speak up before the debriefing if something even potentially dangerous is done or he notices an omission that might turn out bad.
BTW: I see no added value in constant switching of taxi lights except for the rare circumstances when I might really risk blinding someone else (which is pretty much impossible in daylight. I particularly dislike extinguishing taxi lights when holding short of a runway as I'd want to be as visible as possible should I have accidentally trespassed onto an active runway.
This reminded me of a colleague who, after he left the company, was hoping to be asked back as a contract TRE. He wasn’t, and when, eventually, he asked the training department why was told he was/had been a supremely unpopular trainer.
What was really sad, to me at least, was that no one had told him - there was no feedback mechanism outside of the usual line checks, standardisation, LPC/OPC where he could have heard what those he was training actually felt about his methods. Sad because not only was his image of how his career had gone been crushed, but that had there been a system like you describe in place no doubt egos would have been bruised earlier on but changes would/could have been made and a happier outcome resulted for everyone.
There is also a human habit to view all such feedback opportunities as negative, which is why the importance of positive examples and feedback from such a system shouldn’t be underestimated.