I know and agree with you. I started when we didn't have all the bells and whistles in them. I can remember the great CB push day on the TCAS. I wonder how many "
there is a load of traffic out there" was said on that day.
Still the main issue is that even if they could use the FAA sims they still wouldn't because it costs more than doing the training in the aircraft.
My aircraft costs about £2K a pilot in the aircraft to do a LPC including approach fees. And the pilot and TRE can be online the day before and after.
If we were to go to the sim it would be
600 quid an hour * 4 £2400
plus £1200 air fares.
HOTAC £500. = Just over 2K per pilot.
And 3 pilots are offline for 3 days. And thats with a sim available in Europe. Going to the USA the air fares will double and so will the HOTAC.
And you know what they are like for running with min crew levels and firefighting rostering.
Persoanally I don't think things will change until they are forced to. I would like to see the LPC done in the sim and OPC could be done in the aircraft. All command courses and intial ratings to be done in the Sim. .