As a passenger this gets a little scarier each time there is new thread on ‘skills’. Are new generation flight crew really 'pilots' or aircraft systems monitors is one question that comes to my mind. I know that all newer recruits are not the same but that holds good for any profession-difference being most people’s mistakes do not end in death. Looked at a different way there are many careers where skill or touch of people like skilled toolmakers or machinists have seen the skill factor eroded as they monitor computer controlled devices. They still need some of their traditional skills to assess quality and consistency but after a few eyars often could no longer use their precsion skills to replicate the part. Unless allowed to ‘keep their hand ‘ in pilots must lose handflying skills because that si the way we humans are made-use it or lose it.
I am not seeking to be deliberately provocative because I still sort of have faith but wonder what will happen as the older pilots with more rounded experience retire in greater numbers -again I know this group can sometimes be accused of having insufficient skills in other ways as well.
It seems to me though that all airline pilots at some stage of their career should get some experience of unusual attitudes but is a sudden stall in an Extra really much good if your triple 7 300 suddenly throws a hissy fit at 35000 ft .
It is not easy I know but perhaps a way could be found for people to safely ( I am old enough to remember reading about training accidents as people shut down engines etc) experience the scary combination of unusual attitude and huge mass/momentum.
I had a couple of school friends who went on to become flight crew and one I kept in touch with for some years to the point where he was a 757 Captain but as he put it he had learned a huge amount in his early years hand flying 707s round the Bovingdon hold and similar manoeuvres which gave his generation an experience denied to his successors.
I know money is an issue but perhaps a little pressure needs to be put on managements about how safety first really works. A mischievous friend of mine recently wrote to Easy Jet about their attitude to flight safety and got the usual -safety is our first priority response and the most important issue to our management. He didn’t get any response at all to his follow up which said he appreciated the assurance but if they really meant it why was the board composed solely of accountants and marketing people and none of them had any responsibility for flight operations or safety.