Sir - Your comment "Admit It" and "Report slams world pilot standards" (Flight International, 13-19 November, P3 and 14 respectively) begs a question.
It is easy to knock pilot training standards and condemn legal minima for producing inadequately trained pilots. Doing something about it is a different proposition.
The airline industry is driven by market forces, so the cheaper the pilot the lower the fare (not to mention a greater return for the shareholders). Aircraft reliability and flightdeck technology can disguise inadequate training until an event such as the Birgenair accident occurs.
As we embrace European Joint Aviation Regulations/Flightcrew licensing criteria, from 1999 onwards, the UK and other European nations will see well-proven national training procedures reduced to International Civil Aviation Organisation minima. The European Joint Aviation Authorities excuses this by saying that minima are only that, and that there is nothing to prevent training in excess of these requirements - nothing except the additional cost.
Increasingly, pilots are seen as commodities and training organisations as the suppliers.
Open dialogue must be developed so that training efficiency is maximised and focused on the needs and demands of the next generation of pilots. Will it take another Birgenair accident to prove the folly of minimalistic training?
CAPTAIN S J GREEN
Chief instructor
British Aerospace, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK
Source: Flight International
