A lot is being made of how much – or how little – time the Asiana Flight 214 pilot had in flying the Boeing 747. I’ve read several articles where the author has said “I wouldn’t fly if I knew the pilot had 40 hours of training on the plane.” The news media has been making so much about the amount of training time the pilot had and the fact that it was the supervisory pilots first training flight.
That got me thinking. Several airlines have taken delivery of Boeing 787 Dreamliners and Airbus A380s in the last year. How do pilots get trained on those planes? Someone’s got to be the first pilot to “get behind the wheel” so to speak. Sure, they all go through the training classes, but actual flying time, how do they gain that experience?
Would you not fly on a Boeing 787 or A380 if you knew that the pilot was in his/her first, second or third flight? The pilots are seasoned on other planes, right?
How much does it matter to you?