My grandfather was a coach driver, one dark and dirty night he had a horse throw a shoe, no torch of course just a candle. Even when torches were invented he wouldn’t use one ‘battery might run out’. Eventually he had to admit that maybe automobiles were the way forward but he always ‘kept his hand in’, never really trusted this ‘damn fangled’ new technology. How many traditional skills and trades have followed his into the history books? There was always a backlash of course, a rearguard action rejecting progress and trying to stop the clock, might as well try holding back the tide. The technology already exists to operate aeroplanes in three dimensions to an accuracy of inches without the need to ‘see out’. More accidents are caused by pilots practising their skills and playing ‘Top Gun’ than by the automatics, human error is still the most significant factor in accidents and near misses. As has been pointed out the Airbus has already made traditional skills redundant and this process will continue. The present limitations on manoeuvring will be overcome. I’d rather be a pax in an aircraft with an automatic TCAS than let the pilots run into each other, I’d like to see Airbus go one step further and stop pilots flying visual circuits into the sea. Already you are unable to take direct control of engines as the computerised FCU’s don’t give you a direct link, likewise with controls. Mode S on the SSR will aim to prevent the increasing number of level busts and eventually allow direct ATC intervention. The writing is on the wall boys, if you don’t like it go back to crop dusting.