Original Message

I was at Rucker (now Novosel) when they brought in the Lakota, re-wrote a training program that had made high standard aviators for many years to now dumbed-down maneuvers, over-reliance on upper mode and GPS usage, and proceeded to pass every student no matter what (the "everyone gets an A / we're short pilots so push them through" mentality/excuse). Many of us warned of a rise in accidents/incidents starting in 2022 when that generation became PICs. Not sure that's the exact statistic we're seeing but I would certainly call it a serious contributing factor. It's certainly not because of GWOT OPTEMPO, so it leans more toward lack of training and standards early on... Also, I know for a fact on the UH side that students were let through the course with significantly lower standards to pass than before the Lakota program. None of this is surprising