Dave Martin wrote:

Whatever happened to teaching good look out and airmanship?


Nothing. It's still taught and practiced as effectively, efficiently
and thoroughly as it ever was - and has been for many years. And it's
just as ineffective as it ever was.

Are you one of those who see it as simply a problem of laziness and
complacency? You're probably right but they're both endemic in human
nature and won't change now. For jobs as important as this, monitoring
systems designed with built-in tendencies to distraction and complacency
- and with multiple duties just to top it off - are simply inadequate
and always will be.

All forms of training in lookout are doomed to fail because of basic
human limitations. Not just optical limitations. Humans are simply bad
at continuous alertness and monitoring for a very low probability threat
over a long period. That's why we no longer have engineer's panels in
the flight decks of large aeroplanes. There's as much or more to
monitor than there always was - we've just accepted that humans don't do
it well and found other solutions.

Gliders have the highest rate of midairs of all forms of hard wing
aviation. I'm happy with the collision threat and the things I do to
minimise it and I'll go on flying gliders. If you're not happy, Dave,
you need to accept that it won't be improved without electronic
assistance.

Isn't 50 or more years enough?

Graeme Cant