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Sport pilot here: total flight hours on an airliner is an almost useless metric, the difference between 2000 hours and 5000 hours is negligible. I know pilots w

Sport pilot here: total flight hours on an airliner is an almost useless metric, the difference between 2000 hours and 5000 hours is negligible. I know pilots with over 10,000 hours that died in stupid accidents, I know instructors that never performed maneuvers that are almost routine to other pilots that don't even have 500 hours. I know dozens of pilots and there is no average one, some are very good and some are barely flying, with no middle ground. It is an area where you are either good or pretty bad.

tyingq 7y ago
Is there any data that would show that? Like crashes with pilot error as a contributing cause mapped to hours, and weighted by bands of hours.
- AdrianB1 7y ago
  For airliners, there is less room for error caused by the pilots (but it still happens). In General Aviation, the accident rate is more than an order of magnitude higher per mile (FAA has the data on their site) and by far in most cases it is pilot error, even if GA planes are less reliable. The official statistics are not very accurate because the GA accidents are investigated with less rigor, there are no black boxes to record what really happened and the pilots lie about the real cause (in more than 50% of the accidents I personally know). It is hard to prove all these, but some data exists on the FAA site, the inside info will never be public anywhere to consult. By inside info I am talking about the real story told by the pilots that had the accidents, in small communities people talk very openly about it. LE. I mentioned General Aviation because I know pilots with over 10,000 on B737 that died flying smaller planes or not able to fly at all smaller planes.
- AdrianB1 7y ago
  Sorry, trying to clarify but there is too much to tell for a full picture. In a B737 you are not allowed to do most maneuvers you do when flying a small plane or a fighter; not necessarily acrobatics, but even more basic things like stalls, spins, side slips or flying without engines, which is something I regularly do to maintain my proficiency. That means 10,000 hours of limited, routine flying does not make a lot of difference, especially when you get into an incident that is outside of the routine. Good pilots vs bad pilots: some pilots that I know can fly visual without any instruments, knowing the plane and feeling the plane. Many others are barely flying straight if you mask their artificial horizon and VSI.
  - avar 7y ago
    Aren't those maneuvers done in simulators?
    - AdrianB1 7y ago
      A simulator is to flying what porn is to sex: a simulation pretty far from reality. I had a lot of simulator time when I first flew a plane, it still took me 8 hours to be able to fly it in real life and that was a very simple 2-seater trainer.

tyingq 7y ago

Is there any data that would show that? Like crashes with pilot error as a contributing cause mapped to hours, and weighted by bands of hours.

AdrianB1 7y ago
For airliners, there is less room for error caused by the pilots (but it still happens). In General Aviation, the accident rate is more than an order of magnitude higher per mile (FAA has the data on their site) and by far in most cases it is pilot error, even if GA planes are less reliable. The official statistics are not very accurate because the GA accidents are investigated with less rigor, there are no black boxes to record what really happened and the pilots lie about the real cause (in more than 50% of the accidents I personally know). It is hard to prove all these, but some data exists on the FAA site, the inside info will never be public anywhere to consult. By inside info I am talking about the real story told by the pilots that had the accidents, in small communities people talk very openly about it. LE. I mentioned General Aviation because I know pilots with over 10,000 on B737 that died flying smaller planes or not able to fly at all smaller planes.
AdrianB1 7y ago
Sorry, trying to clarify but there is too much to tell for a full picture. In a B737 you are not allowed to do most maneuvers you do when flying a small plane or a fighter; not necessarily acrobatics, but even more basic things like stalls, spins, side slips or flying without engines, which is something I regularly do to maintain my proficiency. That means 10,000 hours of limited, routine flying does not make a lot of difference, especially when you get into an incident that is outside of the routine. Good pilots vs bad pilots: some pilots that I know can fly visual without any instruments, knowing the plane and feeling the plane. Many others are barely flying straight if you mask their artificial horizon and VSI.
- avar 7y ago
  Aren't those maneuvers done in simulators?
  - AdrianB1 7y ago
    A simulator is to flying what porn is to sex: a simulation pretty far from reality. I had a lot of simulator time when I first flew a plane, it still took me 8 hours to be able to fly it in real life and that was a very simple 2-seater trainer.