I’ll chime in here.
This idea of GA pilots coming up to the airlines with thousands of hours of no SOPs or poor SOPs is horse ****. It’s easily learned. Stop spreading this myth that you can’t teach a late 20s or mid 30s, 40s etc pilot new SOPs when they finally hit the airline world.
There is very switched on low hour pilots who grasp stuff quick and slower learners who probably need a few thousand hours GA to help the transition into multi crew jet ops.
I’ve also seen experienced GA pilots who are absolute dog ****. Some of which are in the airlines and I wouldn’t trust them to fly VFR in a c172.
”Teaching them higher standard SOPs from day 1”. Yeah right. Most GA schools out there hold a decent standard on paper/SOPs. However, go talk to testing officers out there. It’s changed in the last half decade. There’s a lot of low hour g3s teaching dog **** who don’t know basic theory themselves. And this applies to the cadet school at wellcamp too.
CPL candidates going up for tests who can’t read a TAF, or tell you alternate requirements because “my instructor said that airport is always good to go”. The list goes on. I regularly talk to testing officers and the standard anecdotally has fallen hard particularly when it comes to theory and knowledge. Literally hearing stories of CPL candidates who aren’t RPL standard on test day. Never make it into the aircraft. That is a **** reflection on the instructors and any school that allows a student to get put up for test who cannot get through theory needs to bring those instructors in for tea and bickies.
There is a stigma towards these diamond cadets. Some of it deserved and not always through fault of their own. Shiny jet-school syndrome catches many out.
Last edited by soseg; 10th Apr 2024 at 07:11.