Sky9 and others
For your background info, Barrie Clement, the Independent journalist who "quotes" me didn't speak to me at any stage. I didn't even know he was going to publish the article.
He based the article, perfectly legally and validly, on a brief presentation that I gave to a Royal Aeronautical Society flight simulation and training seminar way back on 13 May. My main question to him is: what took you so long?
Most of what he says is a reasonable representation, given that he was writing for for a non-aviation audience, of some of what I said. Inevitably, however, other things that Mr Clement says are his interpretation of the issue.
For example I didn't say at any stage that pilots push a button at the beginning of the take-off run and sit back with arms folded until the landing. Nor did I say anything remotely like that.
My theme was the challenges facing those who manufacture simulators and those who use them for the pilot training task.
The presentation looked at what simulators can do and what they can't. It also looked at the different needs in today's (and the future's) pilot recurrent training as flight decks become progressively more automated and aircraft become more complex, giving pilots less hands-on time but demanding more - not less - systems knowledge and understanding.
At no point was I denigrating pilots and their skills. On the contrary, I was pointing out that in today's world with today's equipment the task is actually becoming more complex, and that pilots' training needs to reflect this.
I could go on, but if you're really interested you'll get the stuff from the RAeS anyway.
Sky9 (you made your request for a reply on the neighbouring thread about Flight), thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. It's clear that not everyone who commented on this thread stops to think, as you did, that even a journalist can be either misinterpreted or misquoted by another journalist.
And finally, I'm not slagging off Barrie Clements. The message, as a whole, was well reported, given the medium he was working in.
David L