Originally Posted by
Caboclo
Slightly off topic, do any of you folks feel that the automation in modern jets is so complex as to be a hindrance, rather than a help?.........
Airbus FBW; No.
B737 Classic; Yes.
Not so much the complexity, but how well designed and how well integrated the automation is. Some automatics are very good, others are not very well designed or integrated, and in those latter aircraft, it can be more of a hindrance.
The pilots have to understand the automatics to fly safely - it is not just a case of engaging the autopilot and auto-thrust - they must understand exactly how the autos are working. (I can still hear some pilots shouting that the Airbus FBW was fighting against them - no it wasn't).
For me, converting onto the Airbus FBW, I found the automatics to be brilliant. Its automation is so well designed and integrated - including the thrust lever gate switching design - that it assists the pilot extremely well. After the Airbus I found the B737 Classic's automation to be quite patchy. For example, the Boeing auto-thrust was confusing to me - sometimes it was active, other times it wasn't, but I hadn't switched it off ?? - so I found it a lot easier to hand fly the Boeing in certain situations.
Reading about the A350 a while ago, I seem to remember Airbus saying that training now begins with fully manual only for the first couple of days in the SIM, with the automatics being introduced gradually after the basics have been assimilated?
On the OP question, I think that it is not modern automatics per se but Flight Directors that are causing our manual flying to rust. Some fall into the trap of just looking at two crossed lines and following them like some sort of video game. Without any flight directors, we would be scanning the PFD properly - pitch, bank, speed, V/S, altitude, heading - and completely see what was going on - even when the autos were engaged.
I think if we could retain all the automatics but just get rid of the flight directors, then our flying would improve.