Originally Posted by
John Marsh
RetiredBA/BY:
How do today's airline pilots compare with those of 1980? If there has been a downward trend in competence in non-normal situations, has Boeing tailored its design philosophy to suit? How reasonable is it to expect Boeing to be able to make such an adjustment?
I dont know the answer to that, I have been retired for 20 years. That said I am convinced that handling skills have been going downhill for many years, precipitated by the introduction of aircraft with FMCS. Children of the magenta line etc. !
Perhaps I am fortunate having cut my teeth on the Canberra, no autopilot, no autothrottle, and a real handful on one engine, and I regularly hand flew my Boeing up and down to/ from around 20,000 feet and actually really enjoyed doing it.
But we actually flew the bloody things !
And as an aside, BA operated Concorde because it was profitable. Lord King and Colin Marshall challenged Brian Walpole, the then Flight manager, to make it so or it would be grounded, and with Jock Lowe’s acumen they did so. I was one of the main charterers for many years. That may not have been the case for AF.