Originally Posted by
WhatsaLizad?
If these 240 hour graduates could somehow land a widebody jet without hydraulics as did the UAL and DHL crews without any previous "simulator" training, your confidence in this idea might be more understandable, but I don't see them surviving any scenario that wasn't included in the syllabus by some training committee.
(a) I think many people are missing the point, that eliminating the "hour building" requirement of a modular course - for example, is not going to change the skill level of the graduate very much;
(b) The "death zone" of between 45 and 200 hours encountered by many students is called that for a reason, and eliminating that time spent unsupervised, hour building, and generally wasting money in a non-airline environment, and replacing it with a learning, constructive simulator environment can only be a positive thing; and,
(c) Huge numbers of airlines have taken many people with just 200 hours over the last 50 years - what many consider "dangerous". What the MPL produces is not only no different, but many people have also seen fantastic 200 hours pilots, who can handle the lot when it all goes awry. Name me a BOAC/BEA/BA accident caused by a 200 hr graduate with insufficient training?
The danger has little to nothing to do with the MPL, and everything to do with adequate selection. The danger with SAA is positive discrimination that allows lower standards based upon colour - be they white, black or Indian. The danger is that the simulator training is added to the course yet adds nothing to the training. The danger is that the total training is insufficient.
The danger does not lie in substituting essentially useless time in the air for productive time on the ground.
If you don't have a sense of mortality after 70 hours, pray when are you going to obtain it? Magically at 200 hours? Come on, that is tosh.