Pilot training
pakeha-boy. You hit it on the head. Well said. Too much emphasis on flight testing rather than on training. I don't see how aerobatic training would have helped the crew of AF447. You don't take a passenger jet which is at 35000 ft (close to coffin corner) and put it through an area of bad weather. I've said many times before, if they had flown around the bad weather, they would be alive today. Also, if they had released the sidestick (taken their hands off the thing) the aircraft may have recovered on it's own. This was a stupid accident that should never have happened in my opinion. The attitude that we should know how to recover from an upset is only one side of the story. I prefer the side that says, let's fly the 'plane so as NOT to have an upset.
My experience in sim "training" on the Airbus was not good. It was a "get you" attitude rather than "let's see how we can make this a better pilot". One should leave the sim exercise feeling good, that you have practised/mastered a particular problem, accomplished something. That is not happening.
T