Originally Posted by
RAT 5
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Is it due to lack of training or lack of self application? Equally there will be those who now it all and can tell us how & why?
I know one important thing about "knowing it all": I don't. No one does, even B & A.
Like all complex professions such as ours there are a dozen ways to skin a cat and each has his or her favourite.
Only ego prevents us from learning from others.
Wrinkles and gray hair no longer imply wisdom they just confirm age. I know this for a fact.
With all this in mind:
I think when aviation captures one, one applies oneself naturally, to supplement training regardless of whether it is rudimentary or, more fortunately, from instructors who really do know their stuff and know how to teach while retaining an abiding respect for the professionalism of their candidates. Aviation is a lifetime of self-teaching.
Wherever aviation has, by circumstance, inattention, reduced motivation or perhaps health reasons, become merely a means to an end or worse, has become just a job, there is reduced safety.
Now, the risk here is in falling into the blame discourse but that is certainly not the intent in these comments.
However, many such circumstances in the ebb and flow of life are at least partly within one's ability to affect. Rarely is one not the locus of all action. An induced comfort through many years of ordinary operations has twin effects upon capacity and even competencies, which is the goal of solid simulator and recurrent training and checking.
The notion of "failure" has changed dramatically over the past 3 decades as has the need to repeat a simulator session. While not the most pleasant of occurrences, a failed ride is always first a learning opportunity and an experience with the potential for rescuing one in one of those moments aviation has in store.
What I hear from colleagues who are still active is that asking questions and being curious is seen as "geeky" and not cool. What a disappointment! If that's even partly the case that's a huge shift from the environment in which the guys now retiring were just cutting their teeth. An incessant curiosity is necessary as are questions and listening; - it's a shame that it's seems to be old-fashioned. Giving in to technology is still voluntary even as it may not be a conscious decision.
I'm not a confirmed believer in consensus thinking, particularly at this stage of the thread and, more generally, regarding automated aircraft. But there are some truths which are becoming self-evident and this thread has touched on some of them.
This is one of many ways of responding to your questions.