Quote:
Originally Posted by SvingenB
.....Single seaters are for aviators, everything else are for pilots, at best 
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Thanks for the compliment. Perhaps those that survive it are aviators, the rest are pilots, at best. A long, long time ago my 4th airplane after minimal time in the T-34, T-28 and T-33 was the F-86L, single seater all the way forever. Somehow the experience was survivable.
The difference between then and now and the 2 guys mentioned in this thread is TRAINING, TRAINING and more or it. (WWII was a disaster for training accidents but that was corrected after hostilities ended. If anything, military pilots were subsequently over trained.)
Guys moving from powered parachutes, or other early untra-light aircraft, to real airplanes are victims of insufficient training - not due to war but circumstances of the regulatory world. These individuals cut their teeth in machines that did not have mandated training, they simply got in them, or strapped them on, and flew (like Orville). Many do it successfully for years.
But those skills generally do not transfer to larger more complex aircraft. Nor does the freedom attitude they enjoy in that flying world, an attitude that can short circuit familiarization which is prudent with most airplanes.
So the guys are not stupid, they simply need more training. Right?
Same old story. More training would fix the problem - so as to at least negate the obvious events waiting to happen - but more training costs money. And it does not get spent if training is not mandated (by rules).
Same old story again. No one wants more regulation so we sit holding our breath while the rule makers ponder the dumb accidents - and what to do about them.