No doubt this (MPL & cadet-ship) will be the way of the future but I hope not too soon:-(
Such topics as the one here always seen to gravitate back to that magical word, that magical state of mind...........experience! You simply can't buy or rush experience. Australia's aviation (as well as all other countries obviously) industry was/is built on tru grit experience as is the whole aviation industry sector such as engineering etc. Whether the MPL & cadet-ship is or will be the answer only time will tell but there's one thing for sure flying training/experience the way we know it is slowly becoming a thing of the past sadly.
It's not that difficult to fly a 'bus' (as long as it's going all okay) & I guess previous tru grit experience is used very little in that day to day boring routine flying stuff....BUT like everything in life we have insurance for just about every single possible eventuality, except the PILOT up front. (talking about Capt) How do you 'insure' him to get you down safe when the spam hits the fan? You can't but you can technically with one single safety insurance barrier..........EXPERIENCE! There's no substitute for it
Just to prove a point about experience & this is not dick waving but an Eg of how previous experience gained the hard/traditional way could in a million to one chance(that's too many when yr airborne!) save the day. A friend of mine & myself (both experienced drivers) where stooging along in a 'Bus' Sim recently at around 500 ft sth of WOL at over 250 kts (gotta love Sims!!) When the guy letting us have a play pointed towards an airport around 10 miles away off to my left (WOL) & he said reckon ya could get it down in time? My immediate actions where (I was hand flying anyway) thrust lvrs Idle (snap movement with A/T now off) Spd brake out, held Alt (500ft) drop the dunlops, some fquick maneuvering zig zaging to gain extra miles, Spd brk stowed, flaps 1 (at appropriate spd) & then a succession of further flap extensions & then having to apply pwr to hold Vapp, the two of us worked as a basic instinct team..........result landed safely, albiet smartly
Reason I reckon it could be done? EXPERIENCE (I've done it many a time in my day to day Ops, legally)............. 300 hr newbie if he was the last man standing in the cockpit with a bare endo would have surely stuffed it up. Yeah I know very hypothetical but it's only meant to be an EG. Okay again not dick waving(can't find it anyway at my age
) just my experience kicking in without having to 'think' about it. I want pilots with experience up front when my families lives are in their hands.
Where getting the MPL purely 'cause it's too expensive to train the traditional way, MONEY the catalyst for all deaths!
Wmk2