ferris
I think it is still a way off before we see no pilots on aircraft. If you ask the general public, “would you hop on a fully automated aircraft without a pilot?”, the resounding answer is no. If and when they are introduced, it will only take one accident with one, which I believe will be very easily blamed on the automation, to bring it all crashing down around the airlines ears.
In regards to what we do during decent and on approach, yes it is correct to say we don’t do much flying, but it is equally true to say that we have to do have to do a lot of intervention through the auto-pilot because the FMS or FMGEC isn’t doing the job that is programmed into it. Also any time ATC give us a heading or speed, this is through the autopilot not the FMS. In most cases trying to reprogram the FMS because of an ATC instruction on decent or approach or because the aircraft isn’t following the profile as programmed isn’t a viable solution because it isn’t fast enough. Even if it was, it can’t respond quickly to handle the very dynamic environment it may be operating in that a human pilot can.