75% of your training is at SFO?
What about the rest of the world?
It's a simulator from the 1980s, you can only put so much in. In any month I bounce around the Pacific as well. Now I'm not saying they need to blaze in at full speed like I do into the airports I go into and pick up all the landmarks I have memorized, but they need to (at the very least) not say that a long wide runway with a 5 mile final is a "challenge".
Fair enough, but aren't you and the others who make the "guilty" call just a little bit curious about why this accident happened? Doesn't it seem odd that you have an experienced crew with about 27,000 hours between the three of them and no one noticed they were way below Vref?
Tells me they were counting on the A/T to hold speed for them, and apparently it wasn't. The other option is that the ASI isn't part of their scan in the first place since they've become so dependent on the A/T to do the work for them. You would imagine the AF stall into the ocean wouldn't have happened either since there were enough hours of experience in the cockpit to keep from stalling an aircraft. Now, if we look at the most recent aviation accidents involving major passenger airlines in the western world we have:
Asiana B777
Air France A340
Colgan Q400
At the base level, all a result of not adding power when it was needed. I know that we should wait for the report on Asiana, but the one paramount FACT which the NTSB did put out was that the aircraft systems were functioning normally during the approach, all the way to impact. Which leaves only operator error, the report we are in fact waiting for is only a descriptor of the operator error and what the NTSB will recommend to prevent future occurrences (to my dismay this will probably be more automation).
Now, you can go back and look at my remarks on the subject and I've never suggested it was an Asian cultural issue, etc. I think this issue is applicable to all airlines which preach, and all pilots who accept, the mandatory use of automatics for as many phases of flight as possible.
...try putting yourself in their shoes.
They're probably better rested than I am after a 14 hour duty day with no relief pilots.