[Pukin Dog]

Let me be clear on this, I am not putting down civilian flight schools. I am only pointing out that they have a different agenda. Outside the military, it is very difficult to evaluate how someone is going to respond during an emergency situation because candidates are not competing with each other, but only with the curriculum. They have a checklist of stuff you have to learn, and when you learn it, you are good to go. They don't put you through the things that determine your character during an in-flight emergency. Sure, you sim all that stuff, but tell me this, how many civilian flight schools are going to take their students to FL400, shut down the engines, roll it on its back and say, "ok, you've got it"? If they do air-starts, I doubt they shut all engines off. You just don't get the pressures that separate the good from the marginal. That is all I am saying, and I am not putting down commercial aviation.

[Fury]

Re: 455 - Outstanding post, thanks for making...

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

Dh says this all the time. Personally, I would rather fly coach on any commercial flight with a former military pilot up front than fly first class when a civilian-trained pilot is at the controls. It's a different feeling boarding a plane when one of our former military jet pilot friends is in the cockpit doing his pre-flight.