I sometimes wonder if an entire generation of pilots are īgrowing upī with hardly any hand-flying skills. There are FOīs who go directly onto FBW aircraft from initial training (<200 hours), for companies which discourage hand-flying, and after several years become captains, presumably with little raw flying ability.
There is nothing wrong with FBW aircraft, and Iīm sure they increase safety immeasuarbly, but at the same time I think there is a need for new pilots to ībed-inītheir skills at an early stage of their careers. If itīs not learned at the beginning, itīs probably very hard to get it back later on.