Maybe it’s time we examine the language we use … for example, there seems to be an acknowledged understanding that the terms “flight training” and “flight testing” are 2 very different things that generate very different expectations. Even more evident is that there are very different levels of acceptance of each – to the extent that some believe that what may be needed is “more training” and “less testing” … but, unfortunately – and truthfully – only if these are 2 very different things can we have more of one and less of the other. Perhaps it might be appropriate to wonder if we might have misunderstood the goals of these 2 actions, which, although seemingly different, have, at their basic levels, an identical purpose. How could I say this?
Well, what is it that an instructor does to determine whether or not the student has “learned” what was being taught? Of course, the instructor applies his/her own set of “standards” with respect to the “satisfactory” accomplishment of the expected task … and does so, task by task. Good instructors eventually change the circumstances – perhaps gradually at first – and just as gradually, reduces the amount of “continuing dialog/instruction” as the student progresses through the accomplishment of each successive task. Eventually, the instructor comes to the conclusion that the student has reached a level of understanding and performance ability to be able to accomplish each of the assigned tasks without having to rely on a continuing set of verbal instructions.
Really good instructors have had his/her student(s) accomplish each assigned task under sufficiently differing introductions and circumstances to better ensure that the task in question would be regularly and routinely recognized and accomplished, despite any variation with which the task is, or may be, initiated. Routinely, learning these assigned tasks comes at different times for each student … and often that learning comes in what could be described as “spurts” of tasks, as each task is eventually “mastered.” Time budgeting and recency of review for those tasks learned early in the training sequence are 2 of the major issues that must be dealt with successfully by each instructor for each student they train.
Unfortunately (and I DO mean unfortunately), I’m personally quite familiar with how the US Regulations and the US Training and Testing Standards are written; including how these documents describe the tasks that are to be trained and how pilot proficiency is to be determined. The Training and Testing Standards are published and are available … but, what is regularly and routinely missed, is that there is NO regulatory requirement to use or apply those “training standards.” The only things that pilots are required (by regulation) to do, are the items listed in the regulations, and those regulations do not include a description of what is or is not satisfactory performance.
Clearly, the representatives of the US regulatory authority act as though the regulations, as currently written, including all the “companion documents” (even though these “companion documents” are NOT regulatory – nor are they published in accordance with what would be required were they to be considered as regulatory) contain all that is necessary to train, evaluate, and qualify pilots for their jobs as airline flight crew members. Unfortunately (again) to reach this conclusion, those US regulatory authority representatives, must depend on those seeking to comply with the necessary requirements to reach the same kind of illogical and/or incomplete understanding of these two sets of documents.
I keep saying that obtaining well trained flight crew members is not, nor should it be, “rocket science.” But it DOES take an intelligent, factual, and committed desire to determine what is necessary, determine how to best achieve that level of training, understanding, and performance ability … and once this is accomplished, there should be ample time and capability to determine when, where, how, and how much of this kind of training is minimally necessary to ensure the safety of each flight operation that is conducted. Of course, all of the above is still just my opinion … but I’ll say it anyway … anything less than this … will be just that … LESS.