Airbus is urging the aviation industry to confront the issue of how to ensure long-haul airline pilots maintain basic flying skills in the face of ever-increasing aircraft reliability and cockpit automation.
This comment is self-serving at best. Like the milquetoast (feeble) Pitot Tube advisory, it deflects the responsibility from the party where it belongs. Airbus is like "the boy who
whispered wolf"!
As we have seen, airlines are NOT going to implement many safety devices unless they are mandated or come pre-installed by the manufacturer.
Feebly calling for 'x' and 'y' does no good. It needs to be built in. How many people, after buying a car, are going to go shopping for seat belts? Or advanced breaking systems...or air bags?
AOA (Angle of Attack) indicators should be STANDARD not optional devices to be wished for when things start to go ape!!!!, for as superior as the Goodrich probes are, they arent infallible and there are easily conceivable situations where even they would fail, regardless.
what I am calling for is a return to hand flying in an intrinsic sense, not in an ad-hoc "lets try it without the AP for a minute" but a consistent well planned and executed
daily endeavor!
Simply,
1) we reverse the role of the computerized systems.
The pilot ALWAYS flies the aircraft and is ALWAYS at the controls. Instead of "Auto -Pilot" we have "Auto-Co Pilot/Monitor" where the computers do what computers do best: monitor boring data streams and offer advice when they detect deviation. The pilot punches in 'auto pilot parameters, course heading etc as before' - BUT THEN PROCEEDS TO FLY THE AIRPLANE with the "Auto-Copilot/Monitor" providing constant aural and tactile feedback along the execution of that flight segment. 'bank deviates a bit from norm?' a slight buzz on the left or right hand side, as appropriate.
This data could be stored and scored to identify the pilots best able to fly the most 'economical flight behavior'
2) More analog devices in the cockpit.
I'm thinking of "drag panels" affixed at slight angles to the airflow directly connected to the pilot and copilot chairs (with appropriate dampers) that allow your to 'feel' the aircraft moving through the air. This analogue data provider would not even need electrical power to function. How would you 'certify it' - I'm not even sure if you would have to! It would simply provide another sensory
subjective experience, just like looking out the window does.
3) Perimeter visibility.
I'm thinking of two.
A non powered periscope type system that allows the pilot to visually see the sides of the airplane and a camera based system that can be fed to the LCD that does the same thing.*
* I just want it: leave me alone! lol