The Competency Gap: What Airline Simulators Reveal About Training
Spend enough time instructing in airline simulators and you begin to notice patterns.
Different crews.
Different airlines.
Different experience levels.
Yet when scenarios become complex, the same dynamics tend to appear again and again.
Some crews manage the situation calmly and methodically.
Others find the workload escalating quickly as the scenario develops.
At first glance it can appear to be a difference in “pilot competency”.
But simulator training often reveals something deeper.
What we are sometimes seeing is a gap between competency assessment and competency preparation.
The Simulator Is a Revealing Environment
The simulator is one of the most powerful training tools in aviation.
It compresses complex operational situations into a short period of time and exposes crews to events that may only occur rarely in real operations.
Because of this, it tends to reveal how well several layers of understanding come together under pressure.
For example:
- technical knowledge
- systems understanding
- procedural logic
- crew coordination
- workload management
- situational awareness
- decision making
When these layers integrate effectively, the crew response appears calm and structured.
When one of the layers is weak, the workload can escalate quickly.
What Instructors Often See
In many cases, instructors observing these situations do not see pilots who lack professionalism or motivation.
What they often see are pilots who are trying to integrate multiple elements of learning at the same time.
For example:
- recalling system knowledge
- interpreting aircraft behaviour
- managing the aircraft
- coordinating with the other pilot
- applying procedures correctly
- and maintaining situational awareness
—all while the scenario continues to evolve.
When several of these elements are still developing simultaneously, performance can appear inconsistent.
Not because the pilot lacks ability, but because too many layers are being learned at once.
The Preparation Layer
This is where preparation before the simulator becomes so important.
When pilots enter a simulator session with a clear understanding of:
- the system behaviour behind the event
- the operational logic of the procedures
- the competencies required to manage the situation
something interesting happens.
The simulator becomes less about discovering what to do.
Instead, it becomes a place where pilots integrate knowledge and competencies under realistic conditions.
The difference in performance can be striking.
Workload is managed earlier.
Communication becomes more structured.
Situational awareness is rebuilt more quickly when things start to unravel.
Connecting the Layers of Training
Modern airline training systems already contain all of the necessary components.
They include:
- structured competency frameworks
- realistic simulator scenarios
- strong assessment methods
But the effectiveness of those elements often depends on how well the layers of training are connected before the simulator session begins.
When pilots clearly understand the relationship between:
- knowledge
- systems understanding
- competencies
- and operational events
the simulator becomes a place where those layers come together naturally.
What the Simulator Quietly Teaches Us
One of the most valuable insights instructors gain from simulator training is that performance rarely fails at the top of the system.
It usually fails somewhere deeper in the foundation.
A misunderstanding of system behaviour.
Uncertainty about the logic behind a procedure.
Or a lack of structured tools for managing workload and crew coordination.
Strengthen those layers, and simulator performance often improves dramatically.
A Question for the Training Community
When instructors observe crews struggling in complex scenarios, where do you most often see the underlying gap?
Is it primarily:
- systems understanding
- procedural logic
- competency behaviours
- or the integration of all three?
And how do your training programs prepare pilots to bring those elements together before they enter the simulator?
I would be very interested to hear perspectives from instructors and training departments across the industry.
