A small touch of reality....
... When a new type (in my case the AW139) arrives in the market there are NO pilots and NO instructors with operational experience to man the simulator built for the new machine. Yes, I know there was a brief hiatus before the AW139 simulator appeared but in that time there were only a few pilots that might qualify for the title 'operationally experienced' and they were, one way or another, firmly tied to their companies.
That mean that the simulator operators had to train up people with appropriate experience to take on the role of SFI and crack on with training hundreds and hundreds of new pilots as best they can.
During that period they acquired a unique blend of skills but these did depend on them having enough appropriate operational experience to 'lean on' during that period. It's easy to say in hindsight that maybe there were not enough SFI's with offshore experience but don't forget the AW139 has penetrated just about every market sector that could accommodate a medium twin.
Would those who are critical of SFI's (like me) who have just tens of hours on the real thing like to see us moved on so that those with 'operational experience' and hundreds of those operational hours - thousands even - can be brought in to replace us?
In the real world finding anyone to do the SFI's job is hard enough but to kick out the guys who arguably have the most SFI time (3,000 hours in my case) would hardly be an incentive for those looking at an SFI job teaching on the AW189 or the AW 169, or for that matter the new generations of Airbus, Sikorsky and Bell machinery.
As the number of operational simulators grows so the difficulty of finding people who are capable of teaching in one of the most challenging of environments also grows. Those of you who have been less well served by incompetent (insufficiently trained?) SFI's will know what I mean.
A little more understanding by all involved would, I think, be appropriate. We may live in an imperfect world but that does not mean it has to be dysfunctional. Get the right people, train them well, treat them well and invest in a long serving and capable work force. I maintain, as you would expect, that I am just as capable of delivering a good TR course as a Gomer or North Sea veteran. It's OK for you to disagree but the reality is that simulators, when they begin working, will never be staffed by pilots with extensive operational experience.
G.