*This thread might be a better fit for another forum rather than Tech Log*
Originally Posted by
777Supremecist
This made me wonder, how much more automated are planes today compared to the past? For pilots, do ya'll ever get bored in the cockpit sometimes? Maybe during cruise with the autopilot doing everything?
Depending on the route and airspace sometimes workload is low for an extended period. These are usually opportunities to look at alternates in more detail, look up recent company notices, run performance calculations, have a look at some technical/SOP stuff maybe. There is only so much of that you can do though and usually you end up chatting to your colleague to pass the time.
Do u guys ever miss the older days of jet-age, due to the less automation/more hand-flying and skills required by the pilots back then? Among pilots, is this modern trend of more automation generally hated or welcomed?
Less automated aircraft are usually more engaging to fly but even a cursory look on flight radar 24 show how congested the skies are in many places around the globe - way more than thirty years ago. As much as I enjoyed flying the turboprop with useless automatics which I started out commercial flying on, the high quality automation on the Airbus I fly now decreases workload which gives me more capacity to monitor what’s going on in the environment: traffic, weather etc. Most of us don’t go to work to have fun (that’s not to say that the job isn’t fun and rewarding: it frequently is) but rather to do a high quality job that will keep the passengers safe and ourselves employed.
Finally, are ya'll ever concerned that even though this automation might not be able to completely replace pilots, it might still one day significantly reduce the pilot's role/importance in the cockpit due to more automation/less skill required?
Personally I would be more concerned about skill atrophy rather than reduction in the importance of the pilot per se.