Hi Mike B. and others, > If you assume the pilots aren't all suicidal then I can only assume they aren't properly trained which includes developing the judgement to avoid critical situations and the skill to make them non critical when they do occur.
Even the best trained and most experienced pilot can go off and make a mistake that results in an accident (history provides illustrations here). So to blame training is not the entire answer. Apart from the annual flight review (hopefully), many pilots may fly around unobserved and develop bad habits. An annual flight review is only a snapshot of a pilot's ability. Expanding the annual flight review to include say, on outlanding check may be commendable, but not realistically feasible for a small club with a small number of instructors and members. It is up to the integrity and self discipline of the pilot not to be tempted by superficially more convenient (but more dangerous) decisions (i.e. stretching final glide to avoid landing out), maintain a good look out (the subject of a GFA ops directive), keeping ahead of the aircraft (i.e. outlanding paddock selection), and avoiding showing off in potentially dangerous situations (low altitude high speed competition finishes when they are not needed). This is stuff that is not necessarily taught, but often aquired by less experienced pilots from more experienced pilots, on top of the intrinsic personality of the pilot. Some questions: 1) A pilot may pass an annual flight review with flying colours and then go off and do something stupid, why? 2) Should we mandate an outlanding check as part of an annual flight review? 3) Should we use psychological testing to screen potential pilots (i.e the suicidal ;-0 ) and exclude ones who have a careless or cavalier attitude (equality and discrimination issues here)? 4) If you think training is to blame: a) What specific critical skills training would you propose? b) How reproducible would it be? c) How predictive would it be of a pilot's future behaviour? Cheers, Michael -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
