Mugwuffin's wuffin, but not very well
Some essential corrections here old sport - your'e getting too excited and biased - take a headache pill and have a lie down in a darkened room.
Quote:- "valid, and getting a dash 8 down the llz/dme approach at ronaldsway on a busy day with rubbish wx is going to be bloody hard work but i fail to see how it relates to high energy (ish) flying or the lookout contained within it."
Chucking brickbats at ATPL's and trying to compare two entirely different flying professionals is grossly unfair, if not plain silly. What is common to both however, and the amateurs and glider pilots, is the need to maintain good lookout, and carry out ALL checks professionally. Would you agree that there are some bad eggs in both camps - hence both segments have Human factors accidents ! I don't notice any sector of aviation that's been absent from HF accidents.
Quote ex Mugwuffin : "AVERAGE vgs pilot is well below the AVERAGE aef instructor in his abilities. "
Correction - AEF Tutor pilots are employed as pilots not instructors (whatever their previous background and do not give formal instruction) and VGS guys ARE 100% instructors. The recent six months accident data doesn't seem to bear out your contention.
Top marks Boswell Bear - hit the nail on the head - this cause of fatals cuts across ALL ranks, professional and amateur, and being the former doesn't make one fireproof or less likely to fail, because we all have human factors failures.
In fact, arguably having a feeling of superiority, may make one more likely to believe in infallibility, and thus more likely to err, not to mention the whole issue of personailty type and risk averse nature or risk taking.