Modern training should be about much more than simply ticking the regulatory boxes Aviation safety has become, in many ways, a victim of its own success. In the days when aircraft were less reliable, and lacked the equipment to provide the crew with constant situational awareness and warnings if things were going amiss, a pilot’s flying skills were the primary determining factor in the outcome of a flight. The regulations around training tended to reflect that. Twenty-first century aircraft – packed with the sort of avionics and other safety-enhancing technology a 1980s aviator could only dream of – do not tend to go wrong. However, that does not mean today’s pilots – if trained according to a syllabus laid down by the regulator – always know what to do when the unexpected happens.