sabenaboy:
It was my pleasure to teach and examine a lot of Belgian pilots. They came from every background from cadets to ex-F16 pilots to old hairy's from previously failed Belgian airlines.
Most of the cadets had been through the SABENA Academy at Scottsdale AZ and they had all been well trained. In the beginning, one or two of them pointed out to me that they were eventually destined for SABENA main line, but such is the arrogance of youth (which I have been guilty of in the past).
I do not think that I ever had a problem with a Scottsdale student, so, whatever they did out there was pretty successful.
The big thing about Belgian pilots versus British pilots was that the Belgian pilots would almost devour a new manual whereas the lazy Brits would pick up just about the minimum information needed and then use the manual as a door-stop.
Most of my Belgians are now floating around the world in large aeroplanes.
Just for a bit of humour (and I am quite happy that the two pilots involved won't mind because they ended up as best friends).
One of them was ex-F-16
One of them was 1200 hours twin piston.
F-16 wants to touch everything.
1200 hours twin piston is not at all sure what he should touch.
After 30 minutes, I froze the simulator and told the twin piston pilot that if he saw the F-16 pilot's hand move across the centre of the overhead panel then he had my permission to break his arm!