Crab posted:
<How much fun is it being a modern airline pilot where the computer does
<99% of the flying for you? It's very safe but how quickly do your pilot skills
<wane when you never get to fly the aircraft?
Fun is not part of the equation. It can be boring watching an autopilot for 14 hours, but it is a darn sight safer than relying on the human brain to keep the shiny side up. Many airline pilots fly sport aviation on their days off, and that is where the fun should remain in flying.
Pilot skills do wane in airline flying. So they should. Many of the skills we train and check for are redundant and bear little relevance to the monitoring and system operating that are required. The engineers wanted to put a manual landing of the A380 into the QRH (non-normal procedures) and I believe that is where it belongs on such a machine.
I cannot land a tail wheel aircraft. I don't need to, it is a redundant pilot skill for my job these days.
In helicopters, I would like to see the day when auto-hover, through to the full flight regime, can be done by the machine. Auto-rotations will not be required to be taught, as such failures as require them will be statistically insignificant. Anti wire collision radar will be standard (it was available to the military from the late 1960's)
And all this on a two seat utility under 1000kgs.