Thank you ,
finally some proper discussion and some facts laid bare on the table for all to better draw informed opinions from.
Now one and all, please read my first post again, does the tone now sound any different after the rush of blood to the brain has normalised.
Rather than a pissing contest to see who's appendage is larger shall we look at some of the facts please.
Tinee Tim wrote 28hrs of sims and minimum 30 sectors F/O 737 Qantas
flyingins wrote 16hrs of sims 62 sectors as an example for JetStar
I asked a mate who has done initial command training on the 737 in Qantas, he came from a wide body F/O position, he reported that he did 70hrs of sim training that included fixed base sims and 61 sectors of line training this figure included the 4 sector check.His respose was that he had 15 years of jet experience under his belt and close to 15,000hrs and he said that the training was spot on and he said he believed any thing less would not have allowed himself to feel totally at ease and able to handle just about anything on his first sector as a captain.
Now putting that into context with my original post, I know there are exceptional pilots in JetStar, some JetStar pilots are mates of mine ,however not every JetStar pilot has the benefit of an extensive training path coutesy of and paid for by a Legacy carrier or another LCC or Airforce ,what pressures does that place on a Training captain when one has to take into account of a trainees ability to pay for training?.Can every JetStar pilot straight out of GA or every JetStar captain who was flying turboprops one year and heavy jets the next due to the rapid expansion in the company truely say that if more sim training was offered prior to flying on the line they would have felt much more comfortable on their first flight.Now when one puts that question into context with the concept of pilots paying for their training ,wether that be up front, or through a bond arrangement/ salary sacrificing ,one can begin to see how this money saving idea from management is not conducive to worlds best practice from a risk aversion point of view.See wording of my first post.
As a final thought on this topic a Training captain friend of mine said the following, "at the end of the day when it comes down to wether or not I'll sign a pilot off on his final check to line ,I ask myself the following question, "would I be happy to send my wife and kids off with this pilot tomorrow", if the answer is yes than a tick goes in the box and a congratatorial handshake offered."
Last edited by max autobrakes; 17th Aug 2007 at 08:10.