Machinbird, I was indeed sarcastic.
I'm sure that having correctly trained pilots is achievable, in the sense that we know how to do that seriously. My concern is about economics for one part (all over the world), and "over there" second/third rank companies for the second part.
How do you assure that all crews are trained as they need to be?
How do you assure that all planes meet requirement criteria?
The latter is far easier to assess, even from a third party (other country...)
As said by bubbers44, because they are not so much needed (in
normal ops), pure flying skills are seen as less essential by many (including some crews). With today's planes, a rookie crew can manage a normal flight "full auto" without wetting its pants. It's not good because, as we know, when **** hits the fan skills & training remain essential. But they do. That's why I prefer that those untrained crews stay in auto. Not that I will go in their plane (if I can avoid it) but because in RVSM, if such a crew screw it, it endanger its plane
and other ones, even if those other ones have a perfectly trained crew.
Your idea of a plane helping the crew to gain certain competences, with instructor-like clues/help for keeping the assigned altitude manually is an interesting one
