Piloting a plane is just like riding a bike...

[harvyk]

C'mon pilots out there, admit it, it's not really that hard to fly a plane, a couple of goes in a simulator and your ready to take a big bird into the air... :shock:

Fake pilot Thomas Salme says passengers were never at risk | News.com.au

 

[Flying Fox]

He admitted he doctored his expired pilot’s licence and was fined €2000 ($2600) and banned from flying for a year.

Small consolation - at least he was trained as a pilot at some stage.

I'm assuming that he managed to get himself onto the pilot roster and payroll as well.

 

[samh004]

Surely after 13 years and 10,000 flight hours, he should be qualified to fly. And if he’s not been involved in any accidents, good on him, it’s obviously his profession. He should be punished for what he originally did, but he’s a good pilot now that should be kept on.

And of course the comparison to Frank Abagnale is a bit thin, as he never flew a plane, he just flew all over and stayed in hotels for free. Much different.

 

[markis10]

Theres a lot to be said for simulator training, and while you do need to have experienced the real thing in some form or another, its a very good tool.

I was lucky to be on the deck of a QF 743 for a training flight involving circuits and bumps at AVV 15 years ago where we had a pilot that was flying the 747 for the first time and a pilot that was returning to the type after a 5 year absence, the rookie did a much better job than the returning pilot despite never having flown the real thing in the past outside of a simulator in testing conditions (x-wind gusted up to 40kts eventually forcing us to return to MEL).

Having said that, circuits and bumps are only one aspect of flying, IMHO a real pilots skills are not tested in such an environment completely, but when things go wrong they certainly are, thats when every cent they have been paid becomes worthwhile, thats when experience counts from the many thousands of hours flown. How many accidents/incidents are only replicated in flight simulators after the event and procedures written as a result of that experience? Luck is not something you want to rely on.

 

[straitman]

Having said that, circuits and bumps are only one aspect of flying, IMHO a real pilots skills are not tested in such an environment completely, but when things go wrong they certainly are, thats when every cent they have been paid becomes worthwhile, thats when experience counts from the many thousands of hours flown. How many accidents/incidents are only replicated in flight simulators after the event and procedures written as a result of that experience? Luck is not something you want to rely on.

markis10,

Very well put. Like many other jobs a pilot is not necessarily paid for what he does but for what he is capable of doing if and when it becomes necessary.

 

[mannej]

I would imagine that it would be an offence to do what this said fellow has done (I know for a fact in other professions it is).
For all that we know he did not have an accident, but if this info emerged after an accident, the legal liability, and the media circus hovering around that airline could have dire consequences for that airline.

I do think that he probably has had a fair punishment, but probably needs some recognition of the 10,000 hrs flying time he has if he does indeed decide to formally obtain his CPL