Very interesting Harley, I trust that those pilots who are really interested in being proficient, rather than just trained for training's own sake, attend training in your establishment. Good on you.
I am not an instructor. I find, regularly though, that I am sought out to "check out" a pilot on a type new to him. One of the challenges is that many instructors around here are just time building on their way to the airlines, and not really interested in honing their skills in any direction other than big jet. That leaves lots of types of flying very hard to get training in. Examples of this include real world floatplane operations, amphibian, skis, STOL operations, and odd types. One of my mentors is the king of tribal knowledge for our area, and I am very lucky to benefit from his training. He trains out of a sense of duty, not because he wants to (he's not an instructor either). He has been flying for more than 55 years, and when he rides with you the advice is amazing, but you look at his eyes, and you can see that he does not want to be there, he’s just had enough…
A client recently purchased, and had delivered to our base, a Bellanca Viking, which made that aircraft about the 15th in Canada - not a common plane. I had flown one for an hour about 25 years ago, and loved it. There are no instructors around, who had ever been near one. So, I was handed the keys, and the flight manual, and told to check myself out in it, so I could then train the new owner, who had never flown anything like it. (he had no retractable, or constant speed prop flying experience, and very little time in a fast plane)
Though I regularly fly lots of types, this was new and different. I did 14 hours solo, before I agreed to train in it. To assure that the new owner got the most from the training I was to give him. During my flying, I took notes, and compared them to the rather modest flight manual. My notes were more detailed, because I'm used to flying with more modern flight manuals, and know what I expect the unapproved sections to say. It is amazing the practical operational aspects of this still simple aircraft which are just not discussed in the flight manual at all.
My hour long preflight briefing included a discussion of all of these observations, and what had lead me to record them (nothing scary, don't worry). The new owner was delighted. We flew 15 hours over five consecutive days. His learning curve was amazing. It was very reassuring to see him putting into effect what I had written and trained, because he was attuned to the need to do it that way (or not do it the wrong way). More than the flight manual, the operations described in my notes stuck in his mind as tribal knowledge, because he saw first hand how they were originated, and why (just for his benefit). I wonder how much better yet he would have done if he could have flown with a high time Viking pilot, who really did have the tribal knowledge on type! Fortunately my own tribal knowledge of all of the other similar types I've flown, carried over to this type, was adequate.
He took the aircraft home solo 1200 miles, practiced at his local airport, then took it into his own grass runway a few days later, completely happy, and pretty safe, I'm sure. The insurance company was well satisfied.
There are so many well written books on flying, which really do constitute flight manual supplements, written by the pilots who flew them, but they can be hard to find, and are not required reading as they should be. That is where our tribal knowledge is going, into text. The old pilots just don't fly with the new ones as much as they should, and the knowledge does not get passed on. The new pilots think that they're hot, and cannot learn from the old guy down the line, who flies a Piper Cub on Sunday mornings. No so fast... (by the way, one such book is "Cessna, wings for the world", by Thompson, a former Cessna test pilot. It is my bible of Cessna test flying)
Tell the boffins that the FMS is the only REQUIRED reading for an aircraft type, so pack all of the wisdom in there. Paper is cheap, and it gives a bored pilot more to read while waiting for the weather to improve! If the boffins give you a hard time, tell them to bring their loved ones to the airport, you're sending them flying with the new pilot, in their airplane, and the pilot will have only the flight manual for reference before the first flight, is there anything else they would like to add to the flight manual before that flight?
I'm glad to hear that your licensing system has so many sub-divisions, it will improve safety. For those "ace" pilots reading this, who think that they should not have to submit to the additional training, you're wrong. I used to think like you. Now I seek out every opportunity to learn from other pilots, in unusual types and operations. When I first flew a LakeAmphib, I thought I had it all figured out with my many hundreds of hours of float flying in the real world of the "bush". I was so wrong, and by my third dual circuit, I realized it. I then took all of the training I could get, and with more than 100 water landings on type, was set free. I fly it like it's going to bite me, and so far so good. (by the way, this is not a knock of the plane, it flies wonderfully. During one Transport Canada flight test I conducted, I was required to spin it many times, and it was a delight!)
But I ramble on, and am guilty of thread drift...
Forums like this provide a wonderful opportunity to circulate wisdom and experience. I suppose that in an age where tribal knowledge is waning by attrition of "oldtimers" the forum offers a means by which experience, at least in it's written form, can be widely circulated. Hey new guys, it's free! Take it!
By the way, Transport Canada does not permit me to approve modifications for parachuting operations. Aircraft design changes can be approved, but operations are not. So I test and approve it, but as a “utility” mod, parachuting is not mentioned anywhere! (funny, what other reason is there to exit a fixed wing aircraft in flight? And, that is the only reason one is allowed to exit a fixed wing aircraft in flight in Canada!) That is a stickler with me, because while I can approve a jump door on a C185, I cannot describe any of the safety aspects of throwing out jumpers, which I learned the hard and often scary way over a few hundred jump flights in the 185. (Ask them to tell you before they decide to trail four people off the right strut, then let go simultaneously!) TC thinks that by allowing a reference to jump operations in a flight manual, there is now an approval of that type of operation, which they know is well beyond the scope of aircraft modification approval itself. Fortunately, there is now a local school who gives a three hour (flight time) + ground school jump pilot course. It's not a requirement, but it's a start! Nothing is perfect!
By the way, PM coming to you….
Cheers, Pilot DAR