and might encourage pilots to fly manually more often.
I am sure most readers would agree with your sentiments. But until State Regulators get involved and mandate regular manual raw data training that can be audited, nothing will change. And there is fat chance that will ever happen.
Readers of US Flying magazine of years ago may remember Captain Len Morgan who wrote a column called "Vectors." He was a wonderful writer who flew 707 and 747 trips to Guam, Seoul, Tokyo, Vietnam, Hong Kong and other Far Eastern points.
I corresponded with Len before the internet arrived. We discussed the new automatics era which was just coming in with the introduction of the first EFIS Boeing 737's. Here is an extract of a letter I received from Len in 1995 in reply to concerns I had about degradation of pilot flying skills as automatics got ever more sophisticated.
Quote:
"Dear John,
Great minds think alike. I could not agree more with your comments on the new tendency to teach young pilots to rely on what you call the "automatics" instead their own flying skills. I saw this trend developing with the first 707's and spreading into the 727s and 747s. I am sure it has gone much further since I retired in 1982, in fact, I know it has since our son is a check airman with USAir on the 737-200. He deplores the trend and when checking out a new captain likes to turn off all the gadgets 100 miles out and tell the new man to find the field and land DC-3 fashion. No DME, no glide slope, no localizer, no VOR. Where the automatics get people into trouble is when a real problem develops. They start punching buttons instead of grabbing the wheel". Unquote.
There was more in his letter but you get my drift. While airline managements may pay lip service to the need to keep in practice at pure instrument flying skills without the aid of the automatics, in reality this rarely will be actively encouraged and for various reasons. Legalities for one. That leaves simulator practice and it is left to the pilot to insist on regular hands-on practice. Unfortunately, the politics of that will often interfere with the pilot's good intentions.