So, I just saw that my plane crashed

[Capt.Rocky300]

91. You are right.....

I did contradict myself. The premise was all inclusive and my individual points strayed from that.

Never the less, other than my agreement that some young pilots (but not all) lack good good airmanship skills, they still must demonstrate skills beyond just engaging the autopilot to pass a checkride. That crash was attributed to the First Officer's over use of the rudder to correct for wake turbulence as I recall. He may have but I've never been convinced that was true. Having over 7,000 hours in the left seat of the A300-600, I can tell you that "The Bus" has a very effective rudder. Just a little pressure and the airplane immediately yaws. I can't imagine any captain just sitting there letting the f/o get more than one little push on a rudder pedal before telling him to stop.

I stand by my comments regarding corporate aviation. In my 50 years in aviation, I've known quite a few pilots that worked for companies because they couldn't get hired by the airlines for one reason or another. Sometimes the lack of a college degree was enough to keep them out. They may be excellent pilots but if you asked them if they would rather nap on a couch in a pilot lounge at some FBO waiting for the big shots to close a deal or be making several grand more a month flying a 737 for Southwest, I doubt many would choose the former.

At this point I haven't heard any likely cause for the crash so I'm not sure why you made the statement you did regarding pilot skills.

I got my commercial in 1969 too. And my days of occasionally flying a Citabria upside down are long gone.