When I joined cx I had zero jet time, but I did have 4 1/2 thousand hours, mostly on twin turboprops and I had flown literally thousands of visual approaches. Now I have been told a visual approach is a dangerous manouver, and I have almost been brainwashed into believing it is. What ever happened to see the runway, fly the approach using basic profile monitoring, land - it's really not that hard - of course use whatever aids you have available to assist.
On the last PCRT cycle there was a training element on visual approaches using VNAV (777) - the problem with this I thought was, unless you practice the procedure on a regular basis, you're probably going to screw it up when you do eventually use it. What ever happened to see the runway, fly the aircraft, land -like a C172 or a King Air - never managed to screw that up ever - it's not that hard!!! Isn't that why its called a visual approach?
I think the main problem is the training department is taking a fly by numbers approach, to deal with the lowest common denominator.
I think Cathay is taking a massive gamble by eroding the skills base of the pilots they are employing. In the long run you cannot defeat the odds, and the house will always win..
Last edited by wheels up; 20th Jul 2013 at 01:50.