Good day ladies and gentlemen,
This is my first contribution in Pprune and would like to greet everyone and thank our host.
Having just left the “Magic Kingdom” for greener pastures I would like to mention that the SV training in my opinion is definitely not the best of the world. However, I’d like to add that after 9 months of terror and truly stressful training, any pilot that survives it is definitely above average and I have nothing but praise for the majority of my colleagues. As an expat with experience in 3 mayor airlines I must also say that the SV first officers are the most competent I’ve ever flown with. Unfortunately, SV has a major problem with their maintenance. The mechanics are people with good skills but cost cutting by management (no spares, no new training) leads to complacency (is it an MEL? Just write it in the logbook…
. I have never experienced so many technical problems and in flight emergencies as in the last few years of the Tri-Star before being replaced by the 777 (a third of the 23 SV 777s are normally grounded to provide spares for the other aircraft).