Do I operate in a non teaching environment? No, not any more. But I used to, including a thousand hours on military fast jets.
I had the same rather limited attitude to theory until I left the RAF and did my ATPLs. I was staggered and ashamed by what I didn't know.
I accept that it's quite possible to operate without knowing much of this stuff. But you'll be blindly following SOPs and checklists that someone else wrote - without a shadow of an idea why you're doing it. That may be fine for years but one day your ignorance will turn round and bite you in the arse. You'll select the wrong checklist because you missed the subtle nuances of what the failure indications are telling you. Or you'll have no idea at all what to do because the aircraft will throw something at you that no checklist designer had thought of.
Gen nav? I forget the details now but you might try googling the story of the Air NZ DC-10 captain who saved a ferry pilots life when he became hopelessly lost over the south pacific. His fundamental knowledge of the relationship between local time and longitude plus a whole bunch of other utterly awesome airmanship got the guy within reach of land and the SAR services. Something I guess you'll never be able to do because all you know how to do is "type stuff into an FMS".
In fact you don't type stuff into the FMS you type it into the CDU then enter it into the FMS. Splitting hairs? Maybe, or maybe you've got no idea what would happen to the aircraft if both CDUs fail because you don't seem to know the difference between an FMS and a CDU. Flight instruments? Not on your list of essential studies.
Principles of flight? Air France 447. Or my own experience in a Phantom at low speed and full power wondering why it wasnt accelerating - until I remembered an old PoF instructor telling me something about the "back of the drag curve". Fuel too cold when cruising over Siberia in the Winter? Pah - what can I do about it - I've never heard of ram rise.
Mass and Balance and HPF eh? Ah yes no need to understand anything about performance - just blindly read off the figures in the RPM or ACARS print out. Its somebody else's job to make sure I'm safe. Don't make me think - I'm just the pilot.
I can personally testify to one incident when the very sharp and very professional training captains in one airline suspected something wasn't right with the performance data supplied for a new aerodrome that was being added to their route structure. Working from first principles they checked it out. Sure enough it was wrong. The performance data company had to rush out an amendment. Would you have noticed. Nah - performance theory is for cissies, you just type stuff into the FMS.
Other parts of the world just concentrate on flying skills? Ha please don't make me laugh. Ive seen what passes for teaching of flying skills in more countries than I'd care to mention and it frightens me witless. Stall recovery pushing the nose to 40 degrees down, no gate speeds for the circuit, flick rolling an aircraft when trying to spin it. Funny thing is, wherever the unprofessional attitude to studies creeps in, so too does the unprofessional attitude to flying.
But ultimately what really worries me about your attitude is that you seem to have entirely missed the point about what your chosen profession is really about. It's not just thrust settings and smooth flying. Every time you get airborne tens if not hundreds of people put their lives in trust to you. Further hundreds of wives, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters put their trust in you to carry safely those that are most precious to them. It is your duty to honour that trust by being as professional as you possibly can be - in every aspect of your job.
Professionalism in everything you do doesn't guarantee you'll be safe but it's a whole lot safer than your attitude.
Last edited by Graham@IDC; 17th Feb 2012 at 00:32.