Pilot Fails Maintenance Exam
I was recently on an Engine Type Rating Course in an EU country. The Course was conducted in english and consisted of a few days of tuition followed on the last day by a MCQ exam over an allowed time of two hours.
Course members were from various EU countries, companies, ages and varying levels of experience and english language - but none spoke the mother tongue of the host nation except two of the manufacturers employees, a design engineer and a pilot. The pilot had a reported 30 years flying experience.
The subject engine was neither a large or a very complicated machine.
Being a Rigga by my original trade spec I am not a great fan(?) of these oil-heating power machines, but I do think I have grown to know them in my struggle to make a career out of the growing amount of faulty flying machines.
At the end of the week's exam, only the pilot failed to make the 75% grade for his 'pass' certification and was awarded an attendance certificate.
I dont know if his failure was due to language difficulties (doing an english course in his own (non-english speaking) country), classroom fatigue (which we all suffered from) or.... what?
The point of this drivel?
Does this pilot's failure to make the grade on an engineers course point to our feathered bretheren not being quite as gifted as we thought? Or that "they" can't equate their "technical" knowledge of aircraft systems to an engineers hands-on knowledge of how things actually work?
Discussion please...