Pilot handling skills under threat, says Airbus

[PEI_3721]

Microburst, et al, my interpretation would not exclude the cognitive / physical skills loop, but in preference considers the wider spread of cognitive skills used in ‘flying’.
I am intrigued by the degradation of physical skills vs the loss of cognitive skills; e.g. you don’t loose the physical skill of flying – you know ‘automatically’ how to use the stick and rudder, but perhaps are not able to ‘finesse’ quite as well (high gain situations). Yet how we think about situations, the abilities to assess, plan and choose ‘automatically’ might have disappeared.

A skill is a process which with practice has become an ‘unconscious’ activity – automatic. Why do the physical skills only degrade, but the wider cognitive aspects disappear – a question for the researchers?

I don’t think that ‘lost’ in this sense means you cannot asses, decide, etc, but the automaticity – the skill and thus ease of conducting these thinking activities has changed.
Perhaps this is similar to the transition from a novice to an expert, but in this instance having to revert back to novice thinking – we have to follow DECIDE instead of being able to choose naturally. This suggests a ‘loss of expertise’, which requires more thinking effort – higher workload, lack of attentional resource.

I agree with much of what JW411 says – we come from the same era, and have a similar background and training. Thus, I wonder if age / experience are factors.
The more senior pilots probably cite rigorous training and situation exposure during military / in depth civil training. Perhaps the majority of these people have managed the transition to ‘automation’ because their cognitive expertise was well formed and had been developed throughout their careers (there was a good foundation and a lot to loose); also because they have developed the skills of thinking, particularly of thinking about their thinking (metacogniton or mindfulness).
Alternatively those pilots trained with the advent of automation may not have had the advantages of deep training; not because of automation, but because of the commercial cut back from the perceived benefits of automation – “you don’t need in depth training”.
With time, this has evolved with the students of the era becoming trainers today – a self generating decline. In addition, there is less time to train or opportunity to gain experience, exposure to unusual situations, etc, etc. Finally, there is a culture driven by commercial pressure of hurry-up, rush, no time to think.
How often do crews debrief in depth, learn the lessons – good or bad from each flight? Thus, modern aviation may have inadvertently reduced training of how to think, and how to turn this thinking into a skill with practice and refreshing.

Used correctly, automation provides opportunity to think about the situation, but to use that opportunity requires will power and knowledge of thinking; how to think, what about, when, and why.

The cognitive capabilities of humans.

“Humans and Automation: Use, Misuse, Disuse, Abuse.”

Training for Advanced Cockpit Technology.