The trouble is that once upon a long ago, the RAF set the standard for flying training. The civilian training system followed and removed those areas felt unnecessary and, most important, uneconomic. Over the years, civilian training has evolved under unrelenting commercial pressure to provide the minimum training possible at the lowest possible cost. Look at UPRT - it started out as a desire to train pilots how to diagnose and recover from situations out of the norm. As this was going to be expensive - simulator envelopes needed expanding in order to accurately replicate more of the envelope (and perhaps have a stab at some outside the envelope conditions) - this has been dumbed down to UPRT avoidance training. This is just one example of how civil training is entirely cost driven. The RAF used to train for excellence. This has in itself been watered down over recent years, but there is a huge element of risk in following civilian 'best practise' for military training in order to reduce costs. Now, I have had no sight of what the MFTS syllabus offers but what I do know is that since leaving the RAF, I have been exposed to a huge disparity in the quality of the civilian pilots I have flown with. The best are as good as anything the RAF has to offer, however I have flown with some qualified pilots (including Captains) who are nowhere near as aware or capable as someone fresh out of 45 Sqn (standard of 5 years ago!). I await to see (from afar) what MFTS produces....