Originally Posted by
Check Airman
For the people who prefer higher levels of automation on the line, when do yo work on raw data skills? Is it in the simulator every 6-12 months? And if so, do the instructors make allowances for the fact that you may not have done it since your last sim session?
About that, I was really surprised in the sim.
There was one exercice on a test (ILS approach with one engine out I believe) where the instructor insisted I flew manually. I was very surprised that the FD was allowed !
As Jacques Rosay said,
flying in this manner can in no way be considered as “flying manually”.
https://safetyfirst.airbus.com/high-...manual-flying/
Personally, I have often heard during test, demonstration, acceptance or airline flights, colleagues, young or older, airline pilots or test pilots, proudly say that they would do such or such a part of the flight - in general a complete approach followed by a landing - “in manual control mode”. I would then observe how they performed and saw that all they did was actually disconnect the AP and servilely follow the Flight Director, leaving the Auto Thrust engaged. And this until start of the flare. This obviously allows an accurate trajectory to be followed, with correct captures, and good control of the speed. These functions are provided for this purpose.
However, within the scope of this article, which concerns manual flying, flying in this manner can in no way be considered as “flying manually”. Indeed, the orders given to the flight controls by the pilot consist in setting the Flight Director (FD) bars to zero, which corresponds to the orders generated by the guidance function. These stick inputs are actions done mechanically by the pilot but are in no way elaborated by him/her. These flight control orders are the same as those which the AP would give if it was engaged. Thus, the added value provided by the pilot is rather negative, as the cognitive resources that he/she uses to follow the FD bars are no longer available for the most elaborate flight monitoring and control functions. In other words, this exercise provides strictly nothing towards the manual flying training for the cases where the pilot would truly have to fly the aircraft manually.