Vbot you make some very good points
I’m surprised that what to me is the most salient one has not been raised
There is simply no question Pilots should be hand flying on a regular basis. Currency is the very foundation of our competence
It’s amazing that there’s so much controversy over this
But getting back to my point, why did you become a Pilot ?
To watch automation 99% of the time ?
My initial motivation was and remains the simple delight and satisfaction In accurate, smooth hand flying, there seems to be a school of thought now that is old fashioned thinking not in sync with modern aircraft
That is nonsense and the reason we have had crashes like the 737 in Amsterdam and the 777 in San Francisco, Pilots that literally don’t know how to fly using automation as a crutch, unable to push the throttles forward to save themselves from a stall, it’s unbelievable
I hear these statements like ‘modern aircraft are designed to be flown on autopilot’ That’s just a cop out, you should be as competent flying manually with autothrottles off
as you are doing a full autoland
There should be no conflict there, and if the PM cannot keep up with your call outs and duties while you are hand flying he or she should find another line of work
Last edited by stilton; 11th Feb 2018 at 01:55.