5 ms·

Would you recommend that airlines publicize the experience of the pilot on each flight, and offer discounts for travelling with less experienced pilots? Becaus

by khafra 15y ago

Would you recommend that airlines publicize the experience of the pilot on each flight, and offer discounts for travelling with less experienced pilots? Because, other than with something like this, "experience" doesn't sound like an alternative to a "panic button" or a "filter button." Where does the experience come from?

PakG1 15y ago
It comes from training in flight school, smaller planes, the air force, etc. There are lots of ways to get quality experience before making the jump to the big planes.
- khafra 15y ago
  I'm pretty sure all major airlines require a ton of hours on smaller planes, and often large cargo planes, before flying passenger jets--so perhaps experience is not the panacea, or must be more carefully tailored to include the right kinds of crisis situations.
  - Nick_C 15y ago
    > I'm pretty sure all major airlines require a ton of hours on smaller planes... That used to be true, and may be right now, but the trend is towards airlines accepting simulator time in lieu. The trouble with that is that simulators are subject to the same problem as any other complex input device: if you haven't foreseen the problem beforehand, you don't program the simulator to model it, and the pilot isn't trained to handle it. Experience can help that simulator time can't. The recent high-pressure turbine blade failure on Qantas is a case in point where the pilots were overwhelmed with page after page of error faults, 145 of them if I remember correctly. If they hadn't been very fortunate to have two other senior captains in the cockpit with them, they would have had a great deal of trouble dealing with the information flow. Personally, as a light aircraft pilot myself, I would not be comfortable with young airline pilots with only simulator experience. At least one of them needs to have a few thousand hours of hands-on-stick experience.
    - khafra 15y ago
      Interesting, and disturbing. I sure hope that after every air disaster or near disaster, a new scenario is added to the mandatory simulator training.

by khafra 15y ago

PakG1 15y ago

It comes from training in flight school, smaller planes, the air force, etc. There are lots of ways to get quality experience before making the jump to the big planes.

khafra 15y ago
I'm pretty sure all major airlines require a ton of hours on smaller planes, and often large cargo planes, before flying passenger jets--so perhaps experience is not the panacea, or must be more carefully tailored to include the right kinds of crisis situations.
- Nick_C 15y ago
  > I'm pretty sure all major airlines require a ton of hours on smaller planes... That used to be true, and may be right now, but the trend is towards airlines accepting simulator time in lieu. The trouble with that is that simulators are subject to the same problem as any other complex input device: if you haven't foreseen the problem beforehand, you don't program the simulator to model it, and the pilot isn't trained to handle it. Experience can help that simulator time can't. The recent high-pressure turbine blade failure on Qantas is a case in point where the pilots were overwhelmed with page after page of error faults, 145 of them if I remember correctly. If they hadn't been very fortunate to have two other senior captains in the cockpit with them, they would have had a great deal of trouble dealing with the information flow. Personally, as a light aircraft pilot myself, I would not be comfortable with young airline pilots with only simulator experience. At least one of them needs to have a few thousand hours of hands-on-stick experience.
  - khafra 15y ago
    Interesting, and disturbing. I sure hope that after every air disaster or near disaster, a new scenario is added to the mandatory simulator training.