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The Miracle in the Hudson is back in the news, with the big-budget flick Sully in theaters. For pilots, it’s a stark reminder that basic stick-and-rudder skills still come in handy sometimes. Those skills certainly helped Sullenberger, whose four decades of experience included glider flying. But in my work as an FAA aviation safety inspector — and during my own four decades of flying, as a flight instructor, airline pilot, and the owner of a taildragger — I’ve seen innumerable examples of pilots, at all levels of experience, who seem to have forgotten or never learned those basic skills.

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I’ve seen CFIs who allow their students to land nosewheel first, instead of properly flaring the aircraft, without blinking an eye. And I’ve seen all too many flight-test applicants who blindly follow the magenta line while navigating with their glass-panel GPS. If the screens went blank, would they have a clue about their position?

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So now we have some instructors without a firm grasp of the basic skills, who in turn, train students who become pilots without a firm grasp of the basic skills. These pilots go on to become instructors without basic skills, who train students without good basic skills... you see where this is going.