BombsGone (hmmm, not ex-military are we...)
Well my experience of ex-military pilots is somewhat different. I have flown with about 50 of them, in various capacities, and have found them, with one outstanding exception, to be generally arrogant, overbearing, and disdainful of civil pilots. I have experienced the following:
- one ex-Lightning pilot who thought it was OK to perform aileron rolls in a Jetstream 31 during recurrent checks;
- one who thought performing "buzz and break" manoeuvres was acceptable with pax on board;
- One who I had to fail on a Line Check, because he called visual whilst he was not only IMC, but after he had just flown through the localiser at 90 degrees and had no idea where he was relative to the runway;
- one ex-fast jet guy who failed his F27 conversion because he simply could not fly in a straight line - I kid you not;
- one ex-military instructor who hit me across the head while I was flying, sending my headset down under the rudder pedals, because he didn't like the way I was flying the approach. His rationale was that he had got away with a lot worse in the RAF;
- one who used to request that USAF fighters do practice intercepts on our aircraft over the North Sea ("embellishing"), scaring the crap out of the pax in the process;
- one who disappeared from a conversion course for three days to go on a binge with his squadron buddies, stating that "military matters" were more important than the training;
- one who we had to fire after he had six altitude busts in a month in the London TMA;
- and, of course, all the tossers who simply can't fly without their treasured ex-military flying gloves, and the ones who go on and on about how ****-hot they were in the military, and who treat all civil pilots with contempt.
And that is the very short list of my experiences with ex-military pilots.
In my experience, ex-military pilots do not always adapt well to civil flying, because the very qualities that made them selectable to the military, are undesirable in civil flying. Try explaining CRM to a lot of ex-fast jet guys and see how far you get...
I don't know about Australia, but in the UK there are whole airline flight departments that are nothing more than RAF Old Boys clubs. The Chief pilot simply loads the company up with his ex-squadron buddies, irrespective of skill or competency. In one airline I worked for, the Fleet Training Manager was caught filing positive recurrent check paperwork on fellow RAF alumni, when no check had actually taken place. I mean, why go to all the trouble of actually checking these guys? They are ex-Forces, how could they not be competent. He got fired for that after the CAA did an audit. Guess where he ended up? The CAA, another bastion of ex-RAF types.
Don't get me wrong, there are some good guys out there, but there are others who simply can't let go of the giant Boy's Own adventure that their military service was, in their minds at any rate.
Anyway, to answer your points:
This is a gross generalisation and not reflected in my experience.
It isn't a gross generalisation because it IS reflected in MY experience.
Given that once you have an ATPL you can magically become a check and trainer without any training experience,
Maybe you can in Australia, but in the Civilised World you can't. In JAA/EASA land, you have to go through the TRI Core Course before you can do any airline-level instruction, and quite a long process of discrete CAA courses and sim sessions before you can actually become a sim instructor or TRI. It isn't easy at all.
I hope that companies insist on teaching such basic survival techniques and include them in what the military would call an instructor guide for any given training event. A proper instuctional technique course would be nice.
Again, in JAA/EASA land, most of that is included in the company Training Manual.
None that I could see was a training accident
Apart from this one of course, and the J31 fatal accident at Prestwick, and the night asymmetric training accident involving a SA227-AC Metroliner, VH-NEJ, at Tamworth on 16 September 1995, and numerous other in the US. If you go back in RAAF history you will find many training accidents while doing asymmetric training, from various wrecked Hudsons in the '50s down to today.
Enough from me I will await the eventual report.
Well after reading the Whyalla Airlines report, I wouldn't hold your breath...
