Hi Ralph, just because I didn't agree with everything you said makes me touchy??
Funnily enough, I agree that over-reliance on automatics can degrade certain manual flying skills. On the other hand, the automatics make it possible to operate more safely in today's complex and sometimes overcrowded airspace.
Surely the key is to make sure that pilots of our modern, sophisticated airliners are trained to operate them as they are intended, and that they are fully aware of the traps associated with this high degree of automation.
Yes, some of the skills are different, but they are still skills. I've seen some crusty kings of the sky make a real mess of things because they have refused to understand this philosophy.
I fully agree that the foundation of our skills must be a confident ability to 'take it all out' and simply fly the aeroplane. But I would also say that in the UK at least this has not changed for the vast majority of those in command or approaching it.
To say otherwise gives the layman or the PPL a very strange view of our professional standards which is just not true.
An example - I had a learner PPL telling me about how well his instructor thought he was getting on with crosswind landings. "Much harder than in the jet you fly" he said "where the automatics do it for you".
So c'mon guys, lets have some perspective here, that's all I'm saying. If I stick to what I know, the UK, then I can safely say that 99.9% of airliners out there are being flown by highly skilled and disciplined, extremely competent professional aviators.