Turkish airliner crashes at Schiphol

[bullet190]

Those that say 'the motivation to hand fly stems from the top' are spot on.

At the moment the managers in the airline I fly for certainly do not encourage manual flying/visual approaches. When flight crew first convert to type they are not allowed to do a visual approach for the first 6 months. The end result of this is even after 6 months, most will not attempt a visual approach due to a lack of confidence.

In the last year alone I can only remember one occasion when an F/O hand flew a departure to the point of first level off - all the others have got the A/P in buy then.

What happens when it's u/s ? Indeed I have recently been informed of a Capt. who refused to fly an A/C because the A/T was u/s.

I have now been informed by the training department that the whole 6 monthly sim sessions can be done with the A/P in ! Most are obviously choosing to do this.

The AMS accident is a snippet of what's to come - it is the tip of the iceberg.