Originally Posted by
Denti
Maybe so, but considering that some large european countries let their military fastjet aviators fly up to 75% of their 120 block hours a year in the simulator the question is, how current are they really? But that probably belongs in a different part of this board.
Well, since airlines allow
all of what I consider flying to be done in the couple of hours a year in the sim then the military is not doing badly.
It should be pointed out to those without a military background, that military hours are not like civ hours.
A lot gets packed into mil hours, and usual NATO min is 15 per month.
If the SIM is good, then I don't have a problem with it all being SIM based, but I do have a problem with people not actually being kept current and capable.
I floated the idea, semi-jokingly, on another thread about it being possible on a modern fly by computer airliner to curtain off half the cockpit at a time and have one pilot in the cruise run through computer generated scenarios/approaches/emergencies whilst the other monitors the real flight.
That way the pilots will get "actual" experience during the endless dull hours of airline flying, and when something actually happens for real, they might be capable of dealing with it.
The problem, of course, would be the transition from game flying to real if required in a hurry.
Not sure that would be worse than transition from in-flight rest, however.