Plane Tests Must Use Average Pilots, NTSB Says After 737 Max Crashes

But in all seriousness, in no way shape or form should the testing be informed by the skill assessment of the test operator.

The analysis should be looking at the tasks that had to be performed during the test, whether they were properly identified by easily selected checklists, and quantitative measurements of the complexity and physical difficulty of the tasks.

If it comes anywhere close to a question of the skill or strength of the specific test-taker then something has gone terribly horribly wrong.

In old school UI testing you would do GOMS analysis which allowed calculating the difficulty of specific tasks based on the actual manipulations required to perform them. The skill of the particular operator is not generally a factor in these types of analysis.

The subtitle of TFA states;

> Safety board says FAA should embrace data-driven approach to assumptions about pilot responses

This is a much more reasonable statement. For instance, the maximum physical force required to perform the task must be an industry standard that pilots are all certified to be able to perform.

If you can make a plane that saves an airline $1MM/year/copy but costs them $4MM extra and $500K/yr in training costs, you won’t sell as many as if it costs them $3MM extra and requires no retraining (or even $5MM/$0). Sometimes that difference is enough to make the project not viable economically.

Certification is incredibly expensive. The airplane I fly the most was built in 1997 on a type certificate (the basis of certification) originally approved in 1958. That’s incredibly common.

Passengers complain about terrible seats, terrible service, jam packed flights and then search for tickets on price as the overwhelming factor. It’s little surprise that airlines are competing mostly on price.

I’m not sure what you’re suggesting here as the solution to make it [pilot re-training?] “not a major economic driver”. It could be “reduce training costs for everyone” or “increase training costs for everyone” or something else.

You'll want the good ones for that first task.