Not long ago I would write stories fairly regularly about aviation training, probably a couple each year. One of the most dependable recurring themes I would hear from training providers was the difficulty they had in dealing with the additional required training modules regulators continually loaded onto the operators. Some of this was back in the old days of tombstone regulation when the industry knee-jerked to do something, anything, after each accident, but some of it also was the result of well-considered responses to developing knowledge and technology.
The problem, the providers would always say, was trying to fit the new material into the existing training “footprint,” the investment in time and money operators set aside for the process. They weren’t worried about the validity of the additional material as much as they were concerned about which part of the existing training curriculum would get compressed or even tossed out in order to make room for the new stuff.
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