Pilots who can not attain and maintain competancy should be mostly weeded out during initial training.
If the company has a good training program, the check rides should only be finding points that need additional emphasis in training, not really things to take a pilot out of the seat. That should happen well before he is to an evaluation event, either initial or recurrent.
Agree. But not always the case in the civil world. If they do make it through (and often they do) someone must make the hard decision to deal with it before the consequences are an accident. A
good training program is costly and often just a training program will suffice. Just good enough is good enough when competing for big contracts in the eyes of the budget controllers and without contracts we don't have jobs. This is very operation dependent. A continuity training program in a offshore operation is difficult outside a 6 monthly OPC. It can be done though, and regular standards flights can help.
You will always have the occasional dirt-bag that gets thru, but they should be few and far between. Usually these guys are brought to the company's attention by co-workers or customers before a check ride happens.
Other factors also influence the mix, such as culture differences, motivation and selection processes, management style and ability. Thus my point about a conflict-averse leadership environment. Good up to a point, but poor at dealing with problems. A good selection procedure will largely weed out those who are going to be a risk, but a small percentage will ALWAYS get through. If you work for a large company with a couple of hundred pilots I guarantee at least 10 will have slipped through the initial selection. Combine this with perhaps slightly weak leadership and they probably will still be drawing a pay check, despite the fact everyone knows they are a liability and the leadership has been made aware. Ask yourself - "would I be happy that this guy could get us all home, if we have had some major failure, at night in poor weather and I am incapacitated, or would he lose it as soon as the master caution goes off?"
The key to success is the training program, initial and recurrent. This recurrnet program should not be a short burst once a year either
Totally agree. But in addition the company needs solid procedures and OMs with good clear set standards for all to adhere to and clearly defined levels of competency required and a procedure for dealing with the small percentage that slip through.