In Australia it is acceptable to the regulatory authorities for the instrument rating test on airline aircraft to be conducted in the simulator and with full use of automatic pilot. There is a requirement however that one instrument approach must be conducted without use of the autopilot or without use of flight director. In other words you can still stay on automatics as long as the FD is not used. Although automation dependancy is a well recorded subject nevertheless the regulatory authorities regard that as a operator problem and nothing to do with the regulatory authority.
Talking to a pilot flying a Saab 340 for an Australian airline, he opined that if the pilots of his company were required to undergo the full instrument rating test without the use of the automatic pilot and flight director (in other words manual flight, raw data), he estimated that there would be a one hundred percent failure rate of the instrument rating test. He was not joking since the company concerned requires full automation from shortly after lift off to 500 ft on final even under CAVOk conditions.
If this pilot's forecast was accurate then even a fifty percent failure rate would be absymal and a sad reflection on airline policy on use of automation. It makes you wonder how pilots of airlines using jet equipment would fare if instrument rating tests were to be conducted using manual flying on raw data. Eventually pilot's pure flying skills would return to pre-automation days and perhaps that would be a good thing and reduce the number of accidents caused by loss of control in IMC? Discuss
