Wont work in "The Great White North"
I cant speak for SAA and their training but I hope the bean counters dont think it will work in Canada where only about 20% of the flying is "airline type" My youngest is a good example of what is needed over here, her first season was on floats way up North and on her own apart from about 700 First Nations folks, can you even contemplate doing this kind of flying, ie glassy water/rough water/ freezing spray/no docks or dockhands with only 70hrs PIC?Second season, fire detection, now medivac into black hole gravel strips, no NDBs or ILS and all this in an MU2!Also gets to see the other side as most flights bring the patient down South to busy airports . During my time in the heavy metal I found that those coming from this type of flying were light years ahead of those we took from the "Puppy Farms" an experiment which lasted about six months may I add! We recently had some grads of a UK colledge{sorry, no names} They were bright and smart but lacking in any of the skills needed in this type of flying, unforunately we had to terminate them before who lost an aircraft, they had spent huge amounts of money and were I feel short changed by the system, so maybe if its all vectors and long paved runways this will work, but not here.