Wet drills - Only upon joining (no renewals)
Last time I saw a pilot do a recurrent 'wet drill' was to be very sharp & athletic and catch a falling beer glass before it spilled a drop. Impressive.
But I do get the point and wonder about recurrence drills. Riding a bike comes to mind. Jumping in a pool to satisfy some desk jockey and paper work might seem low on productivity. It's amazing how we practice what to do after a ditching, but we don't practice making a successful ditching in the first place. Which is more important? After Sully, suddenly, everyone was doing glide ditchings in recurrent sims. And now? .....When did you last train a powdered ditching? Never. And yet every SEP demo includes a life-jacket drill. The C/A's and pax know how to survive the ditching, but the pilots don't know how to execute it. Damn. Chicken & egg.