The U.S. Air Force is addressing its own pilot shortage with two programs “designed to keep aviators in uniform,” according to the Air Force Times. Air Force pilots can now earn up to $50,000 in annual bonus pay under the plans.
And yet, accidents are down.
A lot of places where pilot skills are down are places where we won’t expect to see accident rates rise until much later. These are big flight schools pumping out new pilots for airlines to put in the right-hand seat.
These pilots are not in command of aircraft themselves or flying privately and killing themselves or wrecking airplanes. Instead they are flying under the guidance of more experienced pilots sitting next to them and enjoying a full array of automation to assist them.
But what happens when/if these pilots graduate to commands and then have low-experience pilots with limit skills next to them? probably nothing out of the ordinary, for the most part. As long as things are going well. But when the automation fails, or precise hand-flying skills suddenly are demanded, or the trim of the airplane is inexplicably rolling nose-down, what then?
Do we have a system propped up by automation and the skills of prior generations of pilots who will eventually all retire?
Now, I’m generalizing, of course. Not all pilots coming out of these schools are ‘inferior’ by any means. But there are a lot that I would never allow my family to fly around in a light airplane with. I’ve seen them struggling to maintain directional control after landing (but it’s fine when you are in a light single on a runway wide enough to land on in any direction), running off the end of grass runways twice as long as necessary for a safe landing, getting lost on crystal clear VFR days. But no matter, they’re only required to be good enough to pass the tests then watch the automation handle the rest in their job flying hundreds of people around in modern airliners.
ASA’s IP Trainer (instrument flight simulator with structured lessons and coaching) was brilliant for instrument training. It is a real shame it was discontinued in 2010 and there doesn’t seem to be anything to replace it.
At least the US made an ATPL mandatory for airline pilots. Here in Canada we still have 250 hr zero to hero’s going into Part 121 equivalent right seats. Sadly this will only change when, not of, we get our Colgan.
One issue that is biting on. both sides of the border are the instructor instructors. The good senior instructors have mostly been sucked up by airline or corporate operators and the ones remaining are all too often the fu*ck ups who got never got hired or more often were fired from their commercial air service.
The quality of new instructors is IMHO well down from where it was even 5 years ago. I was lucky as when I did my initial flight instructor rating in 1986 I was taught by an X Military guy with 30 yrs instructor experience including 8 yrs in the Military teaching on Harvard’s (Canadian T6).
My ego took a big beating but I was a pretty good pilot and instructor when he was finished with me.
From my “perch”, pilots are in many ways better, in some ways worse. For those of you that seek that vaunted airline seat, I suggest these things (all else being non-problematic):
And just remember before you send off that resume: “where you are now, may very well have been the best job you’ve ever had.”
“Blue skies and tailwinds.”
If the quality of CFI’s are actually dropping then the FAA has no one else to blame but themselves. In the 1990’s when I got my CFI, the FAA wanted to do all initial CFI rides with theirFSDO inspectors, not be DPEs. I have been out of flight instruction for a while so if the FAA is no longer doing that maybe they need to return to doing those rides.
The “old” PTS standard for stalls:
“An airspeed at which any further increase in angle of attack, increase in load factor or reduction in power would result in an immediate stall.”
The “new” ACS standard for stalls:
“Establish and maintain an airspeed at which any further increase in angle of attack, increase in load factor or reduction in power would result in a stall warning (e.g. aircraft buffet, stall horn, etc).”
We used to do spins but no more. We used to almost stall an airplane; next we’ll get to “draw” it on a piece of paper. THERE’s your problem. OH! Maybe ‘they’re’ worried that the wing will fall off your PA28?
Are Private Pilot Skills Worse Than Ever? No. However, Glass cockpit systems, digitized gadgetry and risk management study times are more than ever. Thus, home or dual “Ground” instruction is more extensive than ever. Say about 100-150 hours. 45-55 flight training hours, spaced effectively, will make for a reasonably skilled student pilot.
On DPE rates. $1500 for a checkride. Gimme a break
This story should be about electronic media more then pilot skill and training. Except for some of those pilots that are posting here, the rest of us started out knowing absolutely nothing and learned as we went. I made so many mistakes and followed so much bad advise in my early years.
Twenty years ago we couldn’t post our stupidity and ignorance in HD video for the whole world to see from a drone’s-eye-view. We couldn’t post our quick emotional reactionary response to every other quick emotional reactionary response. Flying magazine came out once a month and had a story in the very back called “I Learned about Flying from That”. I remember sitting in the pilot lounge discussing those stories between flights. The rest of the aviation world never did hear our wisdom in those back rooms. How sad :(.
How lucky ‘The Whole Aviation World’ is today though… to have the opportunity to read my most ingenious analysis and wise opinions everyday within minutes after I write them… And I do this for FREE. 
I taught in 757 and 767 simulators for 20+ years and I witnessed a real sea change from the beginning and the end. At the beginning, I had civilian students whose flying background was Metroliners and Jet Streams. Those folks could fly an airplane. It was sometimes tough to get them to knock off the hand flying and embrace flying with a fully integrated autoflight system and flight management computer. At the end, it was the complete opposite. I started to see what I called “machine operators” who had to be taught to operate the specific flying machine in which they were trying to qualify. They didn’t have the SA or piloting skills of old. Some of my colleagues called them “children of the magenta line”. These “machine operators” were most definitely a minority, maybe five or ten percent of students, but they existed.
It’s great if the pilots know all of the systems of the aircraft. I figure that a type rating could be done in only six or seven months, given that details of today’s complex flying machines is voluminous.
And yet, Bill K., we’re in the safest period of commercial aviation in history. So a good systems operator IS a good pilot.
When those systems don’t work as intended, machine operators are at a serious disadvantage. See Air France 447.
Agree.
Are pilot skills worse than ever? If so, the training must be worse than ever. We are all a product of our training. Our experience gained beyond our primary training has provided us with wisdom…even if some of that wisdom came from scaring ourselves almost to death while flying solo.
There is no doubt that flight training is different than a decade or two ago. Now one has to master more than just learning basic stick and rudder skills, there is a new element called systems that are present in most airplanes. These systems could be an iPad/tablet/iPhone with a pilot app to dedicated electronic flight bag. Another component of the news systems is a GPS, handheld or otherwise. Vacuum or electric powered attitude instruments…clustered in round or glass displays. Each of these gauges may look and behave differently depending on what is powering it. ADS-B IN/OUT providing weather, traffic, METARS, TFR’s etc…how does one integrate that device within the flight. If it is on-board the airplane flown for the check ride, the student pilot must know and demonstrate it’s use.
Another component or two of newer systems in not just a yoke vs stick, it can be side stick or a center stick instead of a stick between one’s legs. Differential braking with a free swiveling nose wheel, direct nose wheel steering, or spring/bungee type of tricycle gear steering in addition to the tail-wheel system of ground control. Training airplanes today can have fuel injection or carburetors. A few have adjustable props some don’t.
If we were trained to stall an airplane, we stalled the airplane. If we were taught to avoid the stall but get close to it, noting the flight characteristics just prior to stall, that is what we demonstrated. Basically, we were all trained to pass the PTS or the new version of that with yet another acronym. Some instructors feel that stick and rudder skills are of primary importance delaying systems knowledge and management for a later date. Others teach that both need to be learned at the same time.
There is no one size fits all standard for primary flight training. One could learn basic stick and rudder skills in a Cub but would that airplane make a good cross-country teacher? How would a J-3 work for 3 hours of hood work and the required night time. If the flight school has a 172 with a nav/com and another 172 with a glass panel including GPS and ADS-B IN/OUT, is the training going to be the same? Both get the job done legally, both could use the same syllabus, but because of the on board systems or equipment, the training would have to be modified thereby somewhat different. And within those differences the instructor would be placing a higher or lower priority on things because of those differences.
One could go into class D airspace with the 172 equipped only with a nav/com and use a paper sectional, VOR, watch and whiskey compass to get there. And complete the the legal requirements of gaining a Private Pilot License. The other student in the GPS, glass panel, ADS-B equipped airplane would have to learn to use the on-board equipment and complete the PPL check ride just the same. Who is the better pilot? Who has the better skills?
When do we measure the skill set of the modern aviator…immediately after the check ride or at the 500 hour mark? How do we quantify those skills if no one has gotten hurt? As the trends are revealing, we are flying more but crashing less.
As pilots move forward to the professional levels, many airlines and corporate pilots are flying more and more airplanes with automation. With that automation comes the requirement to understand it and demonstrate it’s use. At which point, if the government, the airlines, and corporate flight departments does not require the demonstration of hand-flying it without the automation, or minimally so, when and where does the pilot get the opportunity to fly without it? And at whose expense?
Who is the better pilot? The answer is not that simple anymore, especially when we are hurting less people and bending fewer airplanes. In some ways, aviation seems to be a sore winner. We aren’t happy unless we are complaining and unhappy.
We did not all get the same training, in the same airplane, with the same equipment, with the same instructor. We all got individually trained in airplanes with tail wheels, nose wheels, with or with out certain radios and avionics, on grass fields or on paved runways, some on short strips and others on mile long runways, some in 65HP airplanes some in 310HP airplanes, with or with out iPads/tablets/ADS-B, etc…with all of us required to pass a check ride with some sort of examiner, FAA or otherwise sanctioned, and pass their version of the requirements delegated by the FAA. As varied all of this is, we are flying more and crashing less. Who is the better pilot then?
”Are Pilot Skills Worse Than Ever?“ Yes, they are.
That being said, today’s pilot skill’s at pushing buttons, turning knobs, touching and swiping screens has never been better.
Kind of like typing on a word processor as opposed to writing cursive with an ink pen.
Which one conveys the message and thought better? Which one is more appealing to the senses?
They don’t even teach cursive in the elementary schools anymore. Kind of like flying skills. They’re both a lost art.
Jim H - Well said. Re: “Who is the better pilot? The answer is not that simple anymore…” I would argue the answer has never been simple. Does the better pilot have superior stick and rudder skills or better judgement? Does the better pilot exercise better checklist discipline, or have a more complete knowledge of the air traffic system? And how do these criteria change as a pilot progresses from Student Pilot to ATP?
During my 21 years in the Air Force as a heavy driver, I thought about this in depth when I had to recommend a junior pilot for upgrade out of a pool of candidates. But how to choose? It was often difficult.
I also believe this is why fighter pilots run the Air Force. Fighter pilots have bomb scores and record and debriefed their Air-Air training engagements. They can quantify and promote the best. Not so simple for transport pilots or Cessna 172 pilots…