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Seems that the new training is still not fit for purpose. I am getting a feeling that they will make it a new type and restrict flying it and the NG at the same time ie multi type qualified. One of these cases that the planes are so similar but fundamental procedures are different that confusion may occur when human factors line up.
I have a sneaky suspicion if you put the same pilots through the NG sim they would have similar issues with the warning and autopilot system on it as well.
This confusion with sensor and instrument mismatches and what the autopilot is doing I personally believe is universal to all grandfather types. The training we do has always centred around engine failures. With the V1 cut in icing conditions with a contaminated runway being deemed the most challenging. To be honest its not on relatively modern pref A western designed aircraft which have been around since the 70's. This doesn't go for soviet designed and built aircraft. Old engines were shite and did fail regularly but these days I have shut 1 engine down in 17 years and 8500 hours of flying. A lot of pilots will never land single engine in real life. But yet we do minimum 4 engine failures per sim session of 4 hours, 2 handling and 2 monitoring. The OPC/LPC and LVP session its at least 4 each. Electrical bus failures are a pain in the arse especially in the Q400 where you have 5 seconds to spot a single warning light for a bus failure. After that it sheds everything half the instrument panels turn off, half the lights on the cap go on and there is no indication of what was the first one to light up. If you spot the light its one switch and everything goes back to normal. If you don't and go for fixing the reds first your going to shut an engine down. And you get such a bollocking for just trying the one switch first if you miss it. I suspect because it ruins the whole setup for the scenario and makes life too easy. They always put it on when your busy dealing with something else and its an additional light. Once your a cynical auld bugger like me you can see the lead up to it and when it goes on you stab your finger on the cap light and call it immediately or just lie and call it when the attention getter goes off.
Its extremely rare in the sim that we go above FL100 unless we are doing decompression training. We have instrument scenarios once every three years and to be honest the QRH checklists all revolve around you getting the right one to start with. There is no help deciding which checklist to go for. Once you have the right checklist then its relatively simple to sort it out. Go down the wrong path and it can get very interesting relatively quickly.
Aircraft which have been modernised over the years and stretched under grandfather rules are a mish mash of original and add on's / upgrades. The interaction between the different systems is sometimes counter intuitive. I have made comments before about rad alt. In its original form it was a nice way of spotting that you hadn't set your altimeter set properly. If it failed which it did regularly it was no big deal they had 10 days to fix it and everyone was happy. These days its linked to so many systems and there is a cascade of issues which effect multiple other systems. The two big ones are TCAS and EGPWS. Both are downgraded to such an extent that they create more problems than they are meant to solve. The solutions is to pull CB's and kill both systems properly. But that's not meant to happen in flight because there is nothing in the QRH telling you to pull the CB's. Thankfully modern RAd alts rarely fail.
I believe after the AF447 airbus forced operators and changed the sim syllabus to include a mandatory set of instrument scenarios so they would be better prepared if it happens again.
So this training issue is more to do with a failure of the global training system to keep up with changing aircraft and the realistic threats to daily flying. And per say its not a MAX issue, but it has highlighted it and they will have to solve it before it can fly again. But what it will mean though is Airlines will get absolutely hammered in additional training costs. Which they bought the aircraft with the promise that training was going to consist of 30 mins on an Ipad.
BTW I can't say anything publicly about what's being released but this corona virus is going to start hitting public transport extremely hard in the next month. More than a few airlines will be more than happy now that the max is grounded.
I expect a lot of airports are going to be setting up medical stations and screening pax in and out terminals. Pax numbers are going to reduced significantly until it plays out. Airlines are going to run out of crew rapidly if they are getting sent home for 2 weeks if someone onboard is tested positive. In fact its almost worth getting it now and then getting it over and done with. Once you have had it and are immune the overtime prospects are rather tasty.
I have 4 days left to fly this month and then into vacation 100's of miles away from any airport and then start type rating. But I am expecting the type rating to be cancelled at some point.
Only issue I have is I have to take down a wooden barn and put in a new foundation..... And hate working with concrete.
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