Agree with the sentiments expressed by WWW and co. but I think some compromise is called for now. As someone who has suffered set backs in training largely beyond my control I can categorically state that losing continuity during training is something which needs to be lessened especially when it's your own pockets taking a battering. Simulators are obviously a good combatant for this.
The experience gained in sending a student off solo for 'xxx' amount of hours is useful but what does one really learn on these hours build packages spent pootling around the sunny skies of Florida for example? I did it and all I learned was how to kill time by looking out for other traffic in the largely populated skies! Okay, slightly dismissive but when I got back to UK the differences hit me like a bolt of lightning so was it worth it? I jumped through the hoop. Big willies.
I am not for or against this new proposal as I can theoretically see both pro's and con's. Instructing for a few years and getting that experience under your belt is obviously going to help a future airline pilot make decisions off their own backs without prodding from a superior. But at the end of the day is it really all
that vital? I know guys who've walked into jobs with minimum hours and yes, Captains groan but I've yet (and correct me if I'm wrong) to see an accident directly linked to an FO not having had 'xxxx' hours spent instructing in a SEP before his first RHS position on a transport category aircraft flown by the types of companies discussed on this thread.
force low hour pilots into an apprenticeship type training where competency and proficiency are paramount before being let loose.
Heard this idea mooted before and thought it was quite good. It would definately need integrating with proper hands-on flying which would no doubt have to be conducted in a light piston but it's a step nearer to the realism in flight training which we need........and a step into the future.
Jumpseating, time in a jet/turboprop sim, a day in the ops room, two days in groundschool, two days flight training in MEP's..... that sorta thing. Anything but 150 hours of non taxing pleasure flying, 14 exams in futility, 28 hours of VFR navigation
again (the IMC leg now removed from the test as of 01/01/04), and an IR in an aircraft which bares very little resemblance to any aircraft most pilots will ever fly again!
I don't pretend to have the answers but the present system is rather antiquated and irrelevant if you ask me. A little less of the "well I had to do it so must they" mentality would be nice too. We're all guilty of it. I thought straight away that easier ATPL writtens would be bad because I had to do them so......
VFE.