Originally Posted by
BEagle
Rarely have I read such UTTER nonsense as posted on this thread by Manwell!
I sincerely hope that no real flight instructors will bother with such obvious garbage.
As far as the ability to fly without looking at instruments is concerned, in VFR and with a GA aircraft, if makes absolute sense.
By setting the right power parameters for a given flight attitude to nail a precise speed, any pilot who reached a satisfactory level of proficiency should really be able to fly a circuit from TO to LDG without looking at the IAS.
I am not sure that even a great number of instructors would be able to do that today.
The Garmin G500 or G1000 these wonderful tools are often misused ang grab pilot attention to try and keep the vertical and horizontal path when they should look out of the window, chasing speed and heading continously; About the flight parameters (power settings in MAP or RPM + attitude for any speed) Virtually nobody I know uses them, except maybe to stabilise cruise when its time to reduce power..And then so often the wrong use of trim comes up.
Correct parameters for a stable final approach, idem, no mental awareness of the aiming point and touchdown always way to much speed, we are talking here about absolute basics that are not properly instilled...Then we wonder "How to fly"