consider:
flying an automated plane, the pilot takes off, cleans up and engages the autopilot. what , about 3000 feet agl? climb to altitude, watching the autothrottles and the autopilot and yaw damper do their thing. We fly about 5 hours across the nation...descend on autopilot and click off, in trim, on glideslope and fly the last minute or so to touchdown (or an auto touchdown if you like).
ON a 5 hour flight, maybe, maybe 5 minutes of hand flying.
While I understand that southwest pilots hand fly a bit more, the whole idea is for the pilot to have a real feel for the plane.
to use the autobrakes, having NEVER trained on them, in a highly critical landing is akin to doing brain surgery without having held a scalpel before.
perhaps not, but somewhere the system failed. I understand the copilot is back to flying status, the captain is not, but is so close to the 60 retirement age, one can only imagine that he took his sick time and retired.
OPE
jon