BB-
I think excessive use of autos breeds:
Laziness.
Complacency
Agree entirely; Complacency-The biggest Killer. Which is why we are supposed to fight like crazy against it. As for laziness, one would hope that, in our profession, this would be stamped on pretty sharpish by the "system". If not, then there would be something seriously wrong with the safety culture of that particular organisation.
With regard to "hand flying", what exactly are we talking about here? Fly straight and level if necessary; max of 30 degrees bank turn to intercept the localiser, fly down the glideslope (ILS or PAPI) and land. Not exactly difficult, (it's not night ground attack!), and with regard to final approach and landing, we all do this (I hope) manually day in day out when conditions allow, which is 99% of the time. We leave Mr Autopilot to take care of the really hard stuff, such as Cat 3 business. In the sim, we practice what to do if he doesn't perform as advertised,(rarely), and we have to do it right, or else we don't get signed off. So what is the problem?
despegue:
Any pilot who does not routinely handfly the aircraft WITHOUT the F/D has no place on the flightdeck. And I surely do not want myself or my family subjected to his/hers flying "skills" should the need arise to prove them.
Any Airline that forbids raw-data flying should have its AOC revoked for serious breaches in training and safety and the idiots making these rules should be fired on the spot.
Voila, again a very stern view by me to counter some of these computer geeks wanting the aura of being a pilot but being in reality a willing slave of automation without any spine, gut or responsability towards its proficiency and as a result a danger in the air.
You MUST be able to fly a raw-date approach on-speed, on-glide and SMOOTHLY or what are you doing in the cockpit anyhow?! It is the BASIC of being a pilot, the thing they taught you the very first flying lesson.
"Routinely" handfly the a/c without the FD? "MUST" be able to fly a raw data approach? An admirable wish list, and in my earlier comments, I did state that this should be an essential part of simulator training. Indeed, we all obtained our instrument ratings in the first place by proving we were up to this particular task.
But the question is-put your hand on your heart and tell me-are you up to this particular task day in, day out, not just on the nice sunny days but also at the end of a long night slog. The answer is -obviously not. Nobody is advocating being a "willing slave to automation", just the exercise of a little common sense. Lets stop trying to reinvent the wheel and go back to the bad old days of autocratic Captains, non-existent CRM and high accident rates. Automation is here to stay. We should be grateful to our engineering colleagues and to other enlightened members of the aviation profession.
"To thine own self be true".