All over the UK media. Really? And yet not a single search engine on the internet that you care to mention turns that up at all. How remarkable!
The only thing that's really remarkable is that you didn't see or hear the comment.
I checked, too, and found that most of the early stories have been removed, so, no, it's no surprise that you can't find a story with the quote.
Regardless, I don't know the dude who started this thread and you've got two people who don't know each other saying that they've both read the same thing.
The odds that we're just making this up are pretty thin.
Did you see my profile? I think that I have a little bit of credibility in this area when I tell you that the "British system is supreme to everyone" attitude runs rampant throughout the system among it's pilots.
It is this attitude of superiority that is responsible for many of the restrictive rules and regs of JAR and has helped to keep FAA licenses from meaning hardly anything to the JAA.
Don't get me wrong, here...I've met some damn good pilots and made some terrific British friends, but even a lot of them will tell you the same thing that I'm saying.
It's too bad that these "nose in the air" British pilots don't realize how their training system has broken down and is a skeleton of what it once was.
Another poster mentioned the "extreme selectivity" of the UK system.....let me tell you something, all it takes to get a frozen ATPL via a CAA school is to have rich parents. Talent and skill are not required.
Fail a CPL skills test?....just complain to the CAA. They'll side with the applicant the majority of the time and issue the license despite protests from the examiner.
The moral of the story is...don't worry about it. With a few more years of lax CAA standards, the British pilots won't even be able to believe themselves when they claim any sort of superiority.
Oh, and before you start firing back about American pilots.....I pretty much agree that there are a whole bunch of arrogant pricks in that group, too.
I'm one of 'em.
