Steve in Ohio:-
I know what you mean. Like you, I doubt that the TSA, or Homeland Security, are doing very much better in the areas that are genuinely safety-critical. But if they were to say, “Frankly, we have to prioritize, and we’ve been putting our marbles into areas in which we think there’s more of a risk than flight schools,” I for one wouldn’t beat them up for it.
Tim Sumner:-
The truth is that one could probably train a reasonably intelligent and co-ordinated individual to keep, say, a B767 right-side-up and fly it from A to B (assuming, of course, that it is already in flight) without that person ever getting any hands-on cockpit training at all, relying exclusively on computer-based instruction with software available on the open market. Microsoft Flight Simulator wouldn’t do it, but some of the more sophisticated IFR packages for professional pilots like Elite Jet 8.1 very well might.
