Originally Posted by slackie
The main problem with most of the "product" that is turned out of AR is their lack of familiarity with controlled airspace.
I disagree. Whilst that may be a problem in the major centres, where I was speaking of specifically is
uncontrolled airspace with a
very high traffic density and hence a heavy reliance on procedural traffic-flows and clear, precise, concise communication. I have seen these 'bonzai processions' of aircraft from AR & another large training organisation drill through these areas with no briefing from any local operator, no regard at all for published AIP procedures and all the while treating the MBZ/CTAF frequency like a down-home chat-channel!!! For many English is a 2nd language of which they have at best a vague grasp.
Originally Posted by FL440
what part of the country are you from?
That should make no difference at all -piss poor airmanship is just that, no matter where it occurs. Suffice to say most of my operations take place S of the Waimakariri River. I was not having a dig at AFS specifically - have never been there, nor do I recall ever having had a specific issue with anyone I can
positively identify as being from there -my comments were more
generally directed at the AR/Massey students. Perhaps the heavies are more accepting of the products of these environments because when they come out, they are
very unlikely to be in command of an aircraft for quite some years and can be more readily moulded into the wee cookie-cutter clones required.
On more than one occasion I have been involved in guiding these aircraft to where they need to be after they have gotten themselves all 'geographically challenged', which I see at least in part as being because their training organisation sent them off on a mission that was patently
beyond their skill-levels and/or preparedness, not to mention their language skills in some cases.
Many of them could use some training in plain, common courtesy both in the air & on the ground also.