I've said it before and I'll say it yet one more time. More than 50% of the pilots I see in the course of my job cannot be described as competent. Maybe they have the potential to be competent but they would need a lot more 'input' to realise it. When will we wake up and understand that 'attending' a course is not the same as 'passing' a course. We are not served well by the way we are doing things in the world of licensing pilots.
Mr Geoffers, said this, he has summed up the situation perfectly, I completely agree with every word of it.
Also the level of Base knowledge amongst many seems to be lower than it was, I was told of an example of a pilot with APTL/IR who was flying the AW139 offshore who when questioned didn't know the difference between altitude and height !
Also these same people are less willing than ever to serve an apprenticeship as a co-pilot, they think they deserve to go to captain almost immediately regardless of the fact that they don't know the job at all and walk straight into the simplest traps with there size 12's on and looked horrified when I tell them it took me 5 years to get command (many people I know it took 7 years), that's just how it was before!