Automatics versus flying skills - Are some pilots scared to fly by hand?

[Centaurus]

I am not certain which forum is appropriate for this question but here goes anyway.
Subject. Flight Simulator Recurrent training. There has always been a marked divergence of opinion on the relevance or otherwise of raw data manual handling skills in modern aircraft; particularly taking into account the superb reliability of automation.

Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine, October 13th, 2008, has published an article by Frances Fiorino called "Back to Basics." The opening paragraph says technological advances are shifting the pilot's role to one of flight manager - and at the same time are underlining the need to maintain basic stick and rudder skills. Nothing new in that statement of course.

The author quotes Rory Kay, executive safety officer of the US Air Line Pilots Assocation, which represents 55,000 pilots in North America, as saying he has flown the first automated cockpits to their most advanced...he praises their safety benefits, such as engine monitoring, which present pilots with status messages they would not be aware of in older cockpits until it was too late. He stresses that proper training in automated cockpits is "absolutely paramount" as is reinforcement of basic stick and rudder skills.

Kay goes on to say "pilots must remember how to apply basic skills, basic airmanship... so you should have two ends of the evolutionary scale - basic training and advanced technology - side by side in the cockpit to complement each other." The NTSB wants to be certain that "if automation breaks down, the pilot knows how to take control and operate the aircraft."

That's all very good stuff of course, but in real life there is evidence that airline managements don't want a bar of manual flying skills and may even actively discourage pilots from disconnecting the automatics until forced to do so in the last few hundred feet from the threshold. During simulator recurrent training, and even type rating training it is rare to see time devoted to raw data skills, let alone actually flying the aircraft by hand sans autothrottle and FD.

A captain decided to disconnect the automatics and hand fly from 15,000 feet on descent. He also switched off the flight director knowing it would be a simple matter to switch back to automatics if needed operationally. Not a cloud in the sky and aircraft maintaining dead on flight planned track.

The first officer immediately objected and became quite vocal saying it was increasing his stress levels because instead of "monitoring" the captains "monitoring" of the automatics, the first officer was forced to sit bolt upright in his seat to closely "monitor the captains flying". The captain proceeded to fly a perfectly safe approach and landing and afterwards asked the shaken first officer why he objected to the captain keeping his hand in on basic skills. The first officer replied he was not used to watching hand flying in any of his other airline jobs as first officer and it was just pure luck this time that the descent and landing was within "tolerances." Pure luck of course was sheer nonsense. The captain was a skilful operator because he kept his hand in

Granted, this may seem an extreme case of a twitchy first officer, but it was obvious here was one pilot who lacked the confidence to keep up his own basic skills and derided the captain for "risking lives."

When even the manufacturers advise that automation skills need to be practiced either in the simulator or airborne - naturally depending on circumstances at the time - and also that manipulative skills must complement automation skills - why is it there are pilots out there that are so lacking in self confidence that they perceive manual skills as unnecessary and even dangerous? And these are the captains of the future! Scary isn't it?

Why have not these pilots who are so utterly dependant on automatics for comfort, exposed in their recurrent simulator training and forced into keeping their skills from eroding whether they like it or not? Is it because most simulator sessions are filled with pushing buttons and staring fixedly at MAP modes and the check pilots themselves are not convinced that basic stick and rudder skills are essential? That being so - and I suspect that is the case - then the authors of all the articles on automation complacency are simply wasting their writing skills because no one believes there is a problem..