The whole thing raises more questions than answers. I agree, it will always rely on what the bean counters want but…
- For single pilot ops, given that most airlines won’t look at an FO for command til they reach the 3000hr mark (and often much more than this) how does one become a captain without ever being an FO? Would work for long haul ‘cruise pilot’ replacement, with hours on end sat monitoring, but short haul?
- Flight deck sickness.. Still a fairly high occurrence where a crew member becomes incapacitated in flight, certainly higher than the regulators ‘acceptable level of risk’. Of course you can argue for removing pilots altogether, but this thread is about single pilot operations…
- Not sure if it’s a universal ‘thing’ but following the Germanwings incident just six years ago, many airlines have a requirement for two people in the cockpit at any one time. For single pilot operations, surely that risk is heightened, as rare as it thankfully is..?
You might argue that the answer is to do away with the idea of a First Officer and just have an accompanying ‘Safety Pilot’ instead. But given the already diminishing T&C’s for FO’s in the U.K. and Europe, I can’t imagine changing job title will provide much of an overall cost saving - which as we all agree is what it’s really all about.
So I believe this is a way of making long-haul services that little bit more economical, sadly with the loss of some opportunities for suitably qualified pilots. However, it’s not the death knell for the pilot role just yet.
TBSC; they also told us the Titanic couldn’t be sunk, and that we’d all be driving around in flying cars and living on Mars by now. Swings and roundabouts… But you’re comparing land based every day modes of transport. Air travel has grown, but the average person on the street will use elevators and trains much more than they fly to the Costa’s..
The technology might be nearly there, but it would take a paradigm shift in public awareness before it’s implemented and accepted fully in the aviation industry.
Last edited by pug; 29th Sep 2021 at 16:42.