Capt 210
A very gracious reply. I think your attitude is excellent in that it has the very essence of safe flying contained in it. You recognise others have something to teach you regardless of how good you are.
I am a turboprop training captain (soon to be an Airbus FO!), and I am therefore not as qualified as some of the big jet trainers contributing here. My own thoughts are that confidence in handling the aircraft is absolutely vital in dealing with the emergencies desbribed here. In my own job I train new pilots converting to type and I try and tailor training to individual's bacgrounds. For example if the guy has 2000 hours flying singles he is usually very good at handling, but is almost invariably very poor at systems handling. Similarly an ex-big jet Captain is usually great at the systems handling but may not have done a raw data ILS in anger for a long time and needs to do a bit of sharpening up on it. The bottom line is that you have to have a wide range of skills to be good at the job including general handling, system knowledge, avionics understanding and so forth. My own feeling is that it frankly boils down to the attitude of the individual pilot. Some guys/gals are happy just to be adequate. Others are in that constant pursuit of excellence - studying technical manuals, asking for advice from more experienced colleagues, studying SOPs again and again, researching past incidents on their type, constantly reviewing emergency procedures and drills etc etc. I do not think that this 'attitude' is necessarily related to individuals' particular background - it is something that some people have and others don't. I honestly believe that there can be no substitute for an inquisitive and professional outlook. That is the key to success when the day of the big race comes. (And a little bit of luck!!)