In aviation training we often hear the phrase:

“A good pilot will naturally demonstrate the required competencies.”

Communication.

Leadership.

Workload management.

Decision making.

Situational awareness.

These behaviours sit at the centre of modern training frameworks such as Evidence-Based Training (EBT) and Competency-Based Training and Assessment (CBTA).

They are carefully assessed, graded, and documented during simulator sessions and line checks.

But there is a quiet assumption that sometimes sits underneath these frameworks.

The assumption is that these competencies will naturally emerge in pilots who are technically capable and experienced.

In practice, that assumption is not always reliable.

Experience Does Not Always Equal Competence

Pilots build experience over thousands of hours.

They develop technical skill, aircraft familiarity, and operational judgement through exposure to different situations.

But exposure alone does not always develop the full set of behavioural competencies that modern training frameworks expect.

Two pilots with identical flight hours may demonstrate very different capabilities when it comes to:

• managing high workload situations
  
  
• maintaining situational awareness during rapidly evolving events
  
  
• coordinating effectively with other crew members
  
  
• making structured decisions under pressure
  
  

These differences are rarely about intelligence or professionalism.

More often they are about how those competencies were developed — or whether they were explicitly developed at all.

How Competencies Used to Develop

Historically, many of these skills were developed informally.

They were absorbed through:

• observation of experienced captains
  
  
• mentoring relationships
  
  
• exposure to operational challenges
  
  
• learning through mistakes over time
  
  

In smaller fleets or tightly connected training cultures, this informal transfer of knowledge could work reasonably well.

But aviation today operates in a far more structured and global environment.

Pilots move between airlines, fleets, and training cultures more frequently than ever before.

As a result, relying on informal competency development has become far less predictable.

The Simulator Expectation

Modern simulator programs often place pilots into complex operational scenarios designed to test a range of competencies simultaneously.

The crew may encounter situations such as:

• unreliable airspeed
  
  
• multiple system failures
  
  
• rapidly changing operational environments
  
  
• high-workload decision making situations
  
  

The expectation is that the pilot will demonstrate the competencies required to manage the situation effectively.

And many pilots do.

But when performance gaps appear, the assumption can sometimes be that the pilot simply lacks the competency.

A more useful question may be:

Was the competency ever explicitly taught?

Competencies Are Skills — Not Personality Traits

It is tempting to think of competencies such as leadership, communication, and decision making as personality traits.

But in reality, these behaviours can be broken down into structured techniques and repeatable practices.

For example:

Situational awareness can be strengthened through deliberate techniques such as shared mental models and strategic pauses.

Workload management can be improved through clear task delegation and structured crew coordination.

Decision making can be supported through simple frameworks that guide crews through complex situations.

When pilots understand these tools before entering the simulator, they are far better equipped to apply them when the situation becomes demanding.

Training the Foundations

The aviation industry has done an excellent job developing frameworks for assessing competencies.

The next step may be ensuring we are equally deliberate about teaching them.

When pilots are given a clear conceptual understanding of the competencies expected of them — and practical tools for applying them — something interesting happens.

The simulator becomes a place where competencies are integrated and practiced, rather than discovered for the first time.

Performance becomes more consistent.

Learning becomes more efficient.

And confidence grows on both sides of the training process.

A Question for the Training Community

For instructors, training captains, and training managers:

How explicitly are pilot competencies taught in your training programs?

Are they primarily assessed during simulator scenarios, or are pilots given structured tools and frameworks for applying them before they enter the simulator?

It would be interesting to hear how different organisations approach this balance.