Originally Posted by
Kitsune
Doubt that Sully would agree with you STP...
Probably not but I should like to think that he would understand my argument that hours don't necessarily equate to 'experience' and therefore, by extension, ability or competence. Having 5000 incident-free hours trucking around continental US won't necessarily prepare a pilot for something like US1549; OK, the F/O was 'experienced' but had it been a different, 'experienced' captain rather than Sully, would the outcome have been the same? Of course, it's impossible to say, but I have my own thoughts on that.
There's no doubt that the pilots of US1549, CX780 and QF32 all did magnificent jobs in saving the lives of those on board their aircraft and have quite rightly been recognised for their feats of airmanship. The pilots of AF477, AirAsia8501 and, of course Colgan3407 have all been posthumously criticised for their contribution to those accidents and the deaths of those on board. However, as I've quoted earlier, there have been many, many accidents that pre-dated modern airline pilot training that were attributed to crew performance so I find it hard to come to terms with the conventional wisdom that seems to be: experienced pilots = fewer accidents; inexperienced pilots = more accidents.
One thing that some people seem to be unable to grasp is that I'm not advocating that the airline industry should be going down the path of just hiring kids off the streets and making them commercial pilots. What I've always argued is that, as this seems to be the way the industry is going there, needs to be a change in the way we, as line pilots, trainers or checkers cope with this paradigm shift. I'm trying to challenge people's perspectives, preferences, biases and prejudices. Maybe I'm wrong to do that but even if I make one person think about the way that we have to change our approach to nurturing our fledgling pilots then that'll be enough for me.
Originally Posted by
raven11
An airliner with 400 souls on board should not be piloted by a Captain in the left seat with a green novice in the right seat. Consider this: a bathroom break by the Captain results in leaving the cockpit in the hands of the novice (under the watchful eye of a flight attendant). This is simply insane, and eight to 12 seconds of useful consciousness away from a disaster caused by a delay in donning an oxygen mask. Not to mention slamming into a CB, or any other number of dangers and risks. It should be obvious that the traveling public deserve better.
That's been going on for years in many airlines. I know you don't agree with it but how have you coped with your apparent dilemma for all the years you've been flying with SOs, especially trainees?
Personally, I would not want to be operated on by a 200 hour surgeon
Forgive the selective quote but bear with me. Let's say you're on holiday somewhere and you're involved in a car accident and you have internal injuries that require emergency surgery. Before you go into the OR would you ask how experienced the doctor was or would you accept that he was qualified to do the work purely because he was on duty?
We can call it the Chartered Association of Professional Pilots.
Unless you're speaking of individual countries I don't see how that would work. To some extent IFALPA fulfils a similar role to your suggested chartered association but without the responsibility for licensing pilots.
STP