Originally Posted by
Sunfish
George Glass, I wish I could agree with you. The problem for you, as I learned around 1980, is that the bean counters want a dividend for the cost of all that new technology and that dividend is taken as cheaper pilots. In other words, your profession is being dumbed down and that will continue. The same is now happening to medical staff.
You have already seen the consequences for example the san francisco crash by a copilot who couldn’t manually land the aircraft. while the immediate response is a call for more stick and rudder skills, you and I know that the manufacturers long term response is more sophisticated automatics.
Look at it another way, the history of all technology is to de skill and automate. Airline piloting is no different. Get out now. You will just be a glorified bus driver shortly. Technology is going to depress your skills wages and bargaining position.
Do something that cannot be automated.
Well , Sunfish , I don’t know how much contact you have with the Medical Profession but I have many family members engaged in it and I can assure you that they regard automation as an enabler and capability expander. It will not replace human judgement. It will be the same in aviation.
I wish I could take you on a 4 day domestic pattern to give you an idea of what an Airline Pilot actually does. Physical manipulation is a very small part of it. Pilots will be around a lot longer than the software designers think.
Skill erosion is a going to be a huge problem as this pandemic drags on. I hope the space cadets in management are working out a realistic plan for a return to work. If they screw it up the travelling public will find out very quickly how important an experienced , well trained , and current, Pilot is.
I hope it doesn’t end in tears.