U.S. or other world pilots

Kritchlow said:
Europeans like to think their training is better.
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Getting the ATP there is rediculous. Basically our entire written test is broken down into 12 separate writtens. I don’t think I’ll ever fly in Europe.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
No and I’m just jerking your chain ;-)
Don’t respond seriously. Only POA appropriate satire will be acceptable.
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Okay... thanks for clarifying. You saved me from having to write a DenverPilot length response!!!
 
SkyDog58 said:
They seem to think they are better at everything.
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My experience, at least in Norway, that is simply not so. As I mention, at least a few experienced pilots and CFI's here have told me they think our tests are more difficult (some mentioned something about the PPL here being more like the commercial certificate in the US, but I don't know at all) BUT all said that in the US, "they have more time at the controls" and fly a lot more.

The way they say it, and my feeling on it, is that it's better to have more time at the controls. I think most pilots here have a large respect for the pilots in the US, and a lot of envy too for the "wide open spaces" and plethora of places to fly to, airports to land in, etc.

Also as mentioned, lots of them have a little more prestige if they have learned in the US. In general I'd say pilots here respect those in the US a great deal. of course, it is just my impression.
 
StevieTimes said:
I actually read a study about this recently. They noted that it was not just the U.S.A. with the best pilots, but specifically Minnesota. Near the Twin Cities. West Metro, actually.
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I concur and only now fully realize how awesome I actually am :)
 
Sinistar said:
I concur and only now fully realize how awesome I actually am :)
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I didn't want you to get cocky... but they specifically called us out. Said "our combined awesomeness" was so staggeringly high, we raised the average for the whole state.
 
StevieTimes said:
I didn't want you to get cocky... but they specifically called us out. Said "our combined awesomeness" was so staggeringly high, we raised the average for the whole state.
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I also raised the average for time to solo and time to PPL - so if you need an average raised just give me a call :thumbsup:
 
LongRoadBob said:
My experience, at least in Norway, that is simply not so. As I mention, at least a few experienced pilots and CFI's here have told me they think our tests are more difficult (some mentioned something about the PPL here being more like the commercial certificate in the US, but I don't know at all) BUT all said that in the US, "they have more time at the controls" and fly a lot more.

The way they say it, and my feeling on it, is that it's better to have more time at the controls. I think most pilots here have a large respect for the pilots in the US, and a lot of envy too for the "wide open spaces" and plethora of places to fly to, airports to land in, etc.

Also as mentioned, lots of them have a little more prestige if they have learned in the US. In general I'd say pilots here respect those in the US a great deal. of course, it is just my impression.
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That may well be your experience and I can not dispute it as I have not had much experience with Norwegians. I do know that practically every french person I have met has exhibited negative attitudes towards Americans. I have also witnessed this with some people from Britain, Germany, and the elsewhere albeit to a lesser degree. It’s funny that many of them chose to vacation here, work here, and even immigrate here yet they seem to love to bash us. Maybe they just don’t realize that the mode of transportation that brought them here can take them back. The ones who somehow became celebrities or news people here and do this sicken me the most. They probably didn’t succeed back home but somehow do so here and then act ungrateful by bashing the very country that allowed them the opportunity. I just don’t get it.
 
SkyDog58 said:
That may well be your experience and I can not dispute it as I have not had much experience with Norwegians. I do know that practically every french person I have met has exhibited negative attitudes towards Americans. I have also witnessed this with some people from Britain, Germany, and the elsewhere albeit to a lesser degree. It’s funny that many of them chose to vacation here, work here, and even immigrate here yet they seem to love to bash us. Maybe they just don’t realize that the mode of transportation that brought them here can take them back. The ones who somehow became celebrities or news people here and do this sicken me the most. They probably didn’t succeed back home but somehow do so here and then act ungrateful by bashing the very country that allowed them the opportunity. I just don’t get it.
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It is my experience. I have friends in other European countries, and the lions share may dislike policies, etc, but have a great respect for the US.
While we are on the subject, folks in the US often discount or have no knowledge of Europe, and other countries. Often the same people make statements that discount other countries as not important.
Still they admire the US for the "can do" attitudes, and the legacy of accomplishments.
We can't get into politics, thank god and the moderators, but I often see an attitude from Americans that suppose the rest of Europe is "against them" and It just isn't so.
Frenchmen ought to be left out of the equation, they are often very snobby anyway :) but it is very easy to pretend that "they are all against us" but it is just not so.
 
LongRoadBob said:
Frenchmen ought to be left out of the equation, they are often very snobby anyway
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My experience, having done a lot of business in France with various aerospace manufacturers, is that the French in general are not at all snobby. It's the Parisians who are snobby. Paris sucks, I'm always glad to get out of there and into the countryside.
 
Also...bugs the hell out of me that they don't use the US sectional methods and symbols.
It is a PITA to not be able to use US guidelines and tutorials. My untowered airport as well as the main one in Oslo are both blue, no points (even though both have fuel), etc.

Bugs the hell out of me because the US method is better, more information.
 
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SkyDog58 said:
I personally don’t care if there are better trained pilots than us in other countries. What I care about is that very few of them have anywhere near the freedoms that we do when it comes to flying and none of their national airspace systems are as good as ours. We have it pretty good here in the USA.
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Definitely true, nothing in the world beats the USA for freedom and support of GA.
I have flown in 7 different countries and can assure its not friendly and easy outside the USA.
As for training, I learned to fly in Costa Rica, since being a student we trained in short fields, and airstrips with no go around, plus flying in the mountains, not because its a special kind of training but this is the enviroment and conditions we flew all the time.
 
motoadve said:
Definitely true, nothing in the world beats the USA for freedom and support of GA.
I have flown in 7 different countries and can assure its not friendly and easy outside the USA.
As for training, I learned to fly in Costa Rica, since being a student we trained in short fields, and airstrips with no go around, plus flying in the mountains, not because its a special kind of training but this is the enviroment and conditions we flew all the time.
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Agree. Flying GA in the US is just a delicious experience while flying GA in Europe is most of the time painful and expensive. Aviation managers and airport managers don’t want us flying around because we don’t make as much money for them as a commercial aircraft does. Moreover, in Europe we don’t have a big GA industry to support.

About the training in Europe...having experienced both FAA and EASA, I can just say that the entry level licence (PPL) requires more study to obtain here than in the US. The exams and study materials are wider.

The correct questions would be:
-Which training is better?
-Comparing a 300h FAA and a 300h EASA pilot, who is better?

Regards
 
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Europeans generally require more extensive "theoretical" knowledge. A good example is having to learn Latin at many universities.
 
SkyDog58 said:
I’ve always found that to be an amazing fact that even with round trip commercial airfare, hotel costs, eating in a foreign land, and other associated travel costs that it is still cheaper to come here to train.
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I priced some flying in Russia, back when I was flying everything they would let me everywhere I came for vacation. They asked $800/hr for C172 (wet, but still...).
 
I took my first PPL in Sweden, then UK, then the US. In general, the reason they train here is due mainly to cost. And for higher ratings such as IR, the US way is easier, more cost effective and easily converted to an EASA IR. GA and infrastructure is second to none in the US. In Europe, it's there, but harder to access and it takes more effort. Landing fee's, mandatory handling, excessive controlled airspace, excessive regulations, no landings after tower is closed etc, etc. That said, there are a few things the Euro and UK pilots do better - they have much more experience with grass runways than US pilots, as most of them are grass. Tends to freak out most here.

Also, I think the CFI-to-professional route they take here in the US is a better system in many ways. It forces pilots to think about instruction and learning the basics. In Europe, the puppy-mill, multi-crew ab initio's create zero-to-hero pilots with shiny jet syndrome that lack experience and fundamental basic stick and rudder stuff.
 
brien23 said:
Better than Alaskan pilots, as they think they are their own country.
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We have a pretty good time roasting people who don’t understand what “radar services unavailable” means.

Stewartb said:
We’d be better off if we were! But you’re the Alaska expert so what would I know?
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Those that know, know, and those that don’t don’t!

(Also did I miss something?)
 
Miss something? Nah. These guys watch two seasons of an "Alaskan" reality show and they're Sourdoughs, right? ;)
 
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