I am simply incredulous that any so-called professional pilot should consider that doing a visual circuit in a large aeroplane is in any way difficult.
Easy to say, slightly more tricky to justify.
How DO you fly a "visual circuit" in a heavy jet in a (possibly uncooprative) busy ATC environment?
I don't count the sim - after all, it
has to be flown by numbers (like a circling approach) unless you're in a 360deg vis. military jobbo. If, like most sensible airlines, you have stabilised approach criteria, then there are limits to what you can do when you "go visual" in terms of RoD, bank angle, height of final turn, etc. Not to mention the other traffic that is attempting to do the same thing onto the same runway - as it is with many operators now, I
must keep TCAS on TA/RA unless a QRH item allows its inhibition.
Visual circuits are easy - until you take away the DME, reduce the vis., send you at the airport from a strange direction, keep you high/low/under speed control, put lots of conflicting traffic into the equation. Oh, not to mention being after 12hrs in the air too..
I am all for the practice and perpetuation of hand-flying skills but I will stand up and say that today, a (competent) visual circuit is one of the more demanding manoeuvres that you can fly in large aeroplane. And this is from a glider pilot with 3,000+ hrs without an engine, who has to get it right on every visual circuit as there is
no go-around.