I don't see what all the fuss is about.
CAE and GCAT have people doing type ratings that are not actually airline pilots. So why are they qualified to teach RTOs and failures when they have not even been in an airliner flight deck?
BA has First Officers who are TRE/TRI.
So why is it so scandalous to have a first officer, (who has done the exact same course as the captain to run the sim), running a sim.
The 4 days of sims are not about making line management decisions. They are about following procedures that are clearly written in our manuals. If you have gone 4 years previous and done at least 6-8 LPC/OPC and have no idea what is contained in the manuals, then you are bloody lucky!!
Day 2.3.4 you are left to your own devises to see how you make decisions as a captain. There is very little input, if any, during the sims because they are looking at how you handle QRH procedures and decisions. The debrief is then a discussion about why you did what you did.
If you can honestly tell me that some 3000 P1 hour captain who has not had an emergency is better qualified to discuss emergencies and the Ops manual then a 3000 P2 first officer who has had emergencies then you are a fool!
I can tell you for one thing, ALL the SFIs know more then some of the normal line captain out there, and I would rather be sat next to an SFI in a real emergency then some of the old boys!
Can we please forget about it and go back to the thread topic.
If you want to be in EMA or STN, and have a choice of any other base during your line flight week, then go for SFI.
i have not noticed it make much difference to the ability to complete the command upgrade OUTSIDE of the sim stuff.
When operating online, you are not worried about all the failures that they throw at you in the sims. The line training is all about managing the operation, and is where a lot of people struggle regardless of if they were an SFI and can read a QRH nicely.
