Nosegear - Could you remind me again of ANYONE in the entire flight operations department, including training, who have overseas airline experience? I think you will find that they ALL fall into one of three categories - ex instructors, ex Safe Air or ex airforce (many non pilots). They are in those positions because they have hung around long enough at Air Nelson and greased up the right people.
Could you remind me again of any F/Os who have joined with previous overseas jet experience? The flight operations department will not hire anyone with experience that may threaten their position, and the 50 hour recent NZ I/F experience is used to support this. From the postings here it would seem that there plenty of people overseas who would like to return to NZ for the lifestyle but Air Nelson for some reason doesn't seem interested in them?
As far as CRM being assessable in the sim - you're having a laugh surely? You've only got to look at the way some of the senior training staff operate on line, particularly when incidents have actually occurred, to realise that CRM hasn't reached their plane of existence.
I myself found the training to be excellent, and I have several other jobs to compare it too
Naturally the jobs you are comparing Air Nelson with have been with other airlines of a similar or larger size, not the small operators that we all have worked for in NZ before joining Air Nelson, or is Cathay in fact the only other large operator you have worked for?