TT, and Gums, thanks. TT identified the first part of what I was asking about – sorry if I did not express it clearly enough, but you got there.
(I know amateur gliding is miles removed from flying airliners, but in instructing, once past the essentials, most of the further training is in dealing with the unusual, not seeing once again that the student can fly the easy bits with no problems. I would have thought almost all subsequent checks and training follow that, for power including airliner flying, in sims or reality; and to the extent possible, also in self-imposed currency practice in manual flying. It seems obviously most beneficial if handling the more difficult bits. You confirmed it.)
The other part I was interested in was the “000’s of hours of experience” vs “1 hour 000’s of times over”. (An exaggeration, but I think you know what I mean. Like Gums’s many landings. And I have even more landings per hour than him!) I am not criticising the AF447 PF; rather, if anything, questioning the selection, training and check regime that led him to being at the controls in a situation unprepared for. But just how many hours of his few thousand would have been experiencing new stuff ?
Any guesstimates from those in a position to say?
Chris N.