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The Control Room Floor / Re: Pilot Expectations, cont...
« on: July 06, 2021, 05:39:45 PM »
I've also been extremely annoyed by the pilot quality issues as of late. I'm not going to write a book here as many of my thoughts were already said by those above and in the other thread that this one stems from, but here are some of my thoughts on possible steps in the right direction on this issue.
1. More advanced entry exams. I am aware that VATSIM now requires an exam for new pilots, but I haven't seen its contents (is this possible?) and I know for sure it hasn't made a dent in the problem. An idea could be to make a new exam on the basics of IFR (targeted at the 13 year olds who want to go from zero to 747-8), covering things like SIDs, STARs, arrival transitions, approaches, top altitudes, chart reading, etc. and prohibit new pilots from filing IFR flight plans until they pass the exam.
2. A better enforcement system. Along the lines of what Alex said, empower the controllers. Create a system for us to file "deviations" against pilots for common mistakes and save these to the pilot's record. I'm not saying that these should be vehemently enforced/punished (in most cases a simple follow-up explaining the mistake and what to do next time would probably suffice), but if a pilot has had 10 deviations filed against them in their last 10 flights then action should be taken.
3. Pilot rating programs. I promise I'm not trying to pat ZBW on the back here, but PRPs can provide a great introduction to the ATC/communications/procedural side of flying that are not easily replicated. I have a unique perspective as I went through BVA's WINGS program at the same time as my IRL instrument ground school, and I can definitively say that the WINGS briefings explained many instrument concepts better than my ground school did. I'm not sure if there is a good implementation or realization of this, but PRPs are (in my view) a great way to improve pilot quality as they require pilots to actually learn something and involve feedback from controllers.
Controllers have mandatory training requirements; pilots do not. Feedback/QA systems for controllers are in place at most facilities, but there is no equivalent for pilots. It's time to fix that.
1. More advanced entry exams. I am aware that VATSIM now requires an exam for new pilots, but I haven't seen its contents (is this possible?) and I know for sure it hasn't made a dent in the problem. An idea could be to make a new exam on the basics of IFR (targeted at the 13 year olds who want to go from zero to 747-8), covering things like SIDs, STARs, arrival transitions, approaches, top altitudes, chart reading, etc. and prohibit new pilots from filing IFR flight plans until they pass the exam.
2. A better enforcement system. Along the lines of what Alex said, empower the controllers. Create a system for us to file "deviations" against pilots for common mistakes and save these to the pilot's record. I'm not saying that these should be vehemently enforced/punished (in most cases a simple follow-up explaining the mistake and what to do next time would probably suffice), but if a pilot has had 10 deviations filed against them in their last 10 flights then action should be taken.
3. Pilot rating programs. I promise I'm not trying to pat ZBW on the back here, but PRPs can provide a great introduction to the ATC/communications/procedural side of flying that are not easily replicated. I have a unique perspective as I went through BVA's WINGS program at the same time as my IRL instrument ground school, and I can definitively say that the WINGS briefings explained many instrument concepts better than my ground school did. I'm not sure if there is a good implementation or realization of this, but PRPs are (in my view) a great way to improve pilot quality as they require pilots to actually learn something and involve feedback from controllers.
Controllers have mandatory training requirements; pilots do not. Feedback/QA systems for controllers are in place at most facilities, but there is no equivalent for pilots. It's time to fix that.