Originally Posted by
hec7or
LowObservable
A very astute post Sir, also, the fact that the modern equipment is very reliable in comparison to that of the original 1960 era prototype has the unintended consequence that crew only see non-normal events every six months in the simulator and very rarely see real live technical problems in the aircraft where they are faced with all the additional distractions provided by ATC/Cabin Crew/Pax/Ops/Environmental etc. I've yet to see a simulator that can accurately reproduce the non technical distractions.
I don’t think we are terribly far apart in our assessment here. The increased use of automation has demonstrable safety benefits, however, more automation should actually increase the pilot training requirements, not lower them. It used to be that it was enough to know how to fly in a low automation world because that is all we had. Now we need to know how to fly in both high and low automation environments depending on how the circumstances play out. Unfortunately, in a continuing effort to minimize training costs, one set skills is increasingly being sacrificed because the other is viewed as good enough for most situations.
Believe me, I understand how it is natural for pilots to get defensive when suggestions of crew error are tossed about. However, as I have previously stated, a crew’s performance is intimately related to their training, experience, and environment - not all of which they have much control over. I think observations regarding the crew’s performance is really more an indictment of the system that put them in that cockpit than the individuals themselves. Oddly, bending over backwards to overlook crew performance issues is unwittingly playing into the hands of airlines who wish to minimize their pilot labor costs, both in the experience they demand and in the training they subsequently provide. I guess I just don’t get why on one hand it is very easy to heap scorn on Boeing for designing the MAX on the cheap and yet give a pass to airlines who want to hire and train pilots on the cheap.