Teaching the pig to sing

摘要

There's an old country saying about why it's a bad idea to teach a pig to sing: You won't like the result and it annoys the pig. I've lost arguments with friends and with myself on the appropriate level of refresher training for private pilots. As with all things complex, there are many shades of gray. I have a standing bet that if pilots simply performed to the FAA's practical test standards as they've existed for decades, the personal aviation accident rate would plummet. Likewise, if we could just get drivers to approximate the basic skill level when they took their driver's test, the rate of car accidents would fall. Neither concept is realistic given the nature of our fellow humans. It's called the bell-shaped curve.