Tecpilot,
Spot on! And lets say having an emergency like Engine Fire or T/R Failure especially when not being really current on the flying the ship or night flying (i.e. very few flights the last 1-2 months) could be a
situation!
Here some interesting reading (from Oxford Atpl theory, Human Performance):
Skills, or motor programmes, are essential in many tasks. It is only the ability to fly the aircraft using these skills that enables the pilot to send and receive RT messages
without losing control of the aircraft
. The motor programmes flies the aircraft, the central processing unit deals with the communication. If however flying the aircraft becomes non-routine, then the Central Decision Maker is required to fly the aircraft and the transmisssion must stop.
Motor Programmes help to off-load the Central Decision Maker and thus increase a pilot's capacity. For example, a pilot in the Cognitive Phase of learning has no surplus capacity as the Central Decision Maker is working to maximum capacity.
Once the pilot has achieved the Automatic Phase, he/she can fly without conscious thought thus freeing the Central Decision Maker for the many other vital activities that have to be looked after in the cockpit. However, when the process of flying becomes non-routine (an emergency or, perhaps, even turbulence), the pilot must concentrate on his/her flying and may slip back into the Associative Stage until conditions return to normal and a return is made to the Automatic Phase once again. It can be said that stress and lack of practice are the two most common causes of this temporary transition.