SC.
When the cloud base is 100' above your minima, flying into an airport as busy as CDG, I would absolutely use the automatics every single time. The whole point of automatics is to take the workload off us and enable us to step back and monitor the whole situation better.
At the time of the G/A, the PF was obviously so overloaded with the flying that he forgot to put the thrust levers into the TOGA gate.
Don't get me wrong, I love a bit of manual flying whenever I can and I practice it as often as I can, but only when the weather is decent. We're paid to make decisions. Making the decision that this was a good time to practice some manual flying wasn't a great one.
Absolutely. I wonder when some folks are going to accept the fact that Commercial Air Transport flying is no longer what it used to be and also thank God for the greatly reduced accident rate that has resulted from the brilliant work done by the engineers. (They are the real heros; we pilots just get paid to have fun (arguably!)
Face the facts, guys. Todays aircraft are NOT designed for manual flying as we used to know it. There is far too much MCP/MCDU/AP/AT work involved for it to be comfortable in anything but the most benign of ATC/WX environments. The PM is usually overloaded, dealing with MCP/ATC/config changes etc etc, and is mostly out of the loop as far as monitoring what the PF is doing. (Several accidents are proof of this). Worse still is the fact that the PF is usually so busy concentrating on his (rusty) flying that he has little capacity to monitor what the PM is doing (did he set the correct requested FD heading/altitude/mode change? Did he execute LNAV? Did he select the correct waypoint to execute ( must be confirmed by both). Who is calling the FMA? (Critical, and yet often missed, with dire consequences, as we know). In the old days, basic scanning was straightforward, but it's a different ballgame now.
All this should be, and usually is, no problem on nice sunny days in the local environment, but as professional pilots, this is not where we spend a lot of our time. We are usually taking off or landing around the Midnight Hour when fatigue is an issue and performance is probably not at it's best.
So why not load the dice in your favour by using the equipment as it was designed to be used? No macho at stake here, no egos .Just do a safe job. But above all, we have to "Fight like crazy against Complacency", especially the automation kind, i.e by trying to understand as best as we can (not easy!) the ins and outs of these wonderful gizmos that we have been gifted with.
Eroding flying skills? Well, I always say--head down to the local flying club (Redhill?), climb into a Pitts special and prove to yourself (if so inclined), that you still have the Right Stuff.
But please don't try it when you have 400 or whatever customers riding down the back, (including maybe your wife and kids). You'll probably find you're not as hot as you should/used to be.
Nobodys fault really, and especially for we old timers-.("The older I get, the better I was"). Today, the market demands that some of us fly ultra long haul, which means maybe one or two handling sectors a month. So I'm for max use of automation on the line, but at all times trying to "Mind the Store", i.e keeping the basics in mind. With Big Brother watching your every move these days, (unstabilised approaches, etc, etc, etc), who wants tea and biccys with the Chief Pilot? I rest my case.
(p.s no comments please from the short haul/lo co guys. I am sure you fellows are well in the groove. Flight Director? What's that!)