Could you keep quiet and let me do this, please?
A phrase I've been forced to use a few times with instructors who show insufficiently good understanding of CRM that they keep jabbering on whilst somebody else (me!) is trying to do something that requires significant mental effort. Particularly something I've already taken the trouble to study (as I'm sure that TP had).
Some of the best CRM I ever saw happened when I had an EFATO whilst teaching a PPL how to fly an old taildragger. My student handed control to me, I called an emergency and proceeded to turn onto a disused runway. Both my instructor and the tower monitored everything I was doing and ONLY when they judged I needed to know something said it. Both, independently, probably passed me information that saved two lives and the aeroplane, but at the same time both left me with the mental space to make the decisions I neeed, as captain, to do the same.
Well a Makeshift Pilot Licence (MPL) holder can possess all the
commonsense and intelligence in the world but he will still be
as useless as tits on a bull whenever it comes to making a life
threatening judgement call.
Its instilled airmanship and a healthy dose of experience that
makes all the difference - we flew 727s, DC9s and F27s very
safely indeed well before CRM was invented.
The statistics indicate that since CRM's advent something has substantially improved safety. It may have been CRM. It probably was to be fair only part of the solution, since numerous other things were being worked on in the same timescale - such as improved avionics, engine reliability, maintenance procedures, and so-on.
However you make a really valid point. Back in that era people's stick-and-rudder skills were generally superb, so most accidents had a substantial teamwork / comms element, leading to the creation of the CRM concepts - and rightly so. The big concern I have, and MPL exemplifies it, is that in concentrating
too much on CRM, we have lost track of the primary importance of excellent handling skills. AF447 seems to show that distressingly well - three pilots who worked very well as a team - but in complete ignorance of what the aeroplane was actually doing.
I am a huge fan of CRM, but not where it throws the baby out with the bathwater by ignoring the utter importance that pilots have got to be able to fly and understand their aeroplane.
G