BOAC - airmanship
Having read this thread after reading a number of others about various recent tragic accidents, it is good to see that some thought/comments can be posted without the poster being shot down by the "other" side. (Aren't all pilots on the same side?)
The 2 sides being - older pilots who have converted from cables/hydraulics to flybywire in their careers , and younger pilots who have only flown flybywire after receiving the correct training for this equipment as required by their management and aviation authorities.
As you rightly said - we owe it to the passengers and also to all the crews who do such a magnificent job day after day and night after night.
As a lot of the discussion seems to centre around computers - which are essential - and the inability of flight crew to cope when these are not working correctly for whatever reason, I would like to ask whether it would not be practical for an airline to include in its training schedule, a module where each pilot is required, on an annual basis, to do a certain number of hours in a basic, single engine, cable operated training aircraft.
It could be done at a GA field and all kinds of situations including go arounds, engine failures etc. could be included.
Yes, a large number of airline pilots fly/own small planes, gliders, aerobatic planes etc. and with proof, these could be exempted from the annual requirement.
It would be interesting to know, where an accident is proved to be mainly due to pilot error, whether the PF has any ongoing experience with small basic aircraft.
With a young son who is just starting out on a flybywire aircraft for a large airline, it would make me very glad to know that his training included some ongoing basic flying skills as well as all the electronics.