A Guy Called Tyketto writes:

"Those hours flying solo in a single-engine piston airplane, they do us
no good at the airlines, and we can't monitor the pilots," said
Christian Schroeder, an official with the International Air Transport
Association, a trade group that represents airlines. "We are training a
better-qualified and safer pilot this way."

Uh-oh. He forgot to consult the experts on this group! Now he's in
trouble!

However, safety experts and pilots groups said pilots gain invaluable
"white knuckle" experience during hundreds of hours of flight time in
real planes. Flight crews also learn the intricacies and pressures of
dealing with air-traffic controllers in congested air space --
conditions that are hard to replicate in simulators, the experts and
pilots said.

Just connect the sim to VATSIM; then you can train pilots and
controllers at the same time.

In addition, no one has studied whether simulators can safely replace
early flight experience, said Cass Howell, chairman of the department
of aeronautical science at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in
Florida.

"There is no objective proof that this will be just as safe a method of
training," Howell said. "At this point, nobody knows if this is an
effective training method."

There's no proof that it won't be just as effective.

"They allow us to teach our crews that there is more to flying an
airplane than just the stick and rudder skills," said John T. Winter,
director of United Airlines' training center in Denver.

Those are fighting words in this newsgroup.

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