Originally Posted by
lifeafteraviation
Maybe some of us will find jobs flying older planes with "steam gauge" panels and cable flight controls or heaven forbid....propellers...that these younger generation of pilots would be incapable of handling safely.
How true. I have 61 types in my logbook. Of those there are only 3 where a MPL pilot could legally be on board as flight crew.
The current system of student pays works because there is enough of an over supply that airlines can still choose the top performers. But the supply of "not quite good enough" graduates with 100,000 + pound debt increases every day. The word is already getting out and the supply of dreamers with the talent and dosh has to start drying up. The big schools have to keep the numbers up so that means lowering the entry standards. This is inevitable
Those previously mentioned top performers combined with what is generally considered as very robust training departments at both of the big LOCO's is keeping the current situation safe. However the bean counter executives always over reach. So the next "cost management initiative" is IMO absolutely going to be cutting back on the training standards.
Now we have the stage set for a pilot who can keep trying because he has the money if not the talent to get the initial qualification, gets hired because he has the ticket then goes to an airline for IOE run by a cut to the bone airline training office.
Sadly the only thing that causes real change in commercial aviation is a smoking hole with lots of dead bodies. Things will only change if it turns out that a more money than talent new FO who bought his way to the flight deck was a causal factor.
But things are not bad enough yet. I give it another 5 years before the chickens come home to roost.
For those who think people don't care, look at what politician mandated regulatory changes happened in the US after the Colgan Q 400 crash in Buffalo. Europe has not had its Colgan yet, but it is going to happen