My piloting is 4hrs , Auster, age 16, 1975 - so that is clear... Bitten, hooked, but physically disqualified to join your ranks. So here are my unbiased thoughts on
"Manual versus Automated".
Some suggest that it would make sense to let people hand fly from time to time, and that the bean counters are against it. Well, IF at any random time hand-flying (whatever that means) was better than automation, then whoever was selling automation would be out of business, and they are not, so I assume that (sorry), more often than not, Hal saves your average arse, more often than he kills you. I know, we individually accept our own mistakes and get pissed as hell when we are right and that damn computer is wrong but the passenger down the back prefer to go with the odds.
Of course, there are times when the bean counters will say it is ok to hand fly, probably when you are well rested, traffic is quiet, visibility is good, so, SO no pain no gain, what is the benefit, I have an open mind on whether hand flying in good times is enough to help you in bad times- you tell me.
Now clearly, when things get really interesting, Hal will be challenged, and with the benefit of hindsight, still being alive (cause he saved the average arse last week), we can spot the faults.
I propose the following scheme.
Flight regime is Normal or "10 years ago". Cessna produce a plane that flies like a 10 year old Airbus and every pilot gets free flights on that, hand fly all you like, push the envelope, but leave the SLF on the ground. IF you can fly better than the current Airbus then you get a job with Airbus.
Of course, there is a wrinkle, your bean counters might not let you fly the 10yr old technology, you might have to stand your own life insurance. At Paull (airfield) we had an RAF guy (navigator) who wanted to get his PPL, the RAF decided they had invested too much in him to allow him to do something as stupid as hand fly a C150!
If Automation was not better than Mr Average they would be out of business, of course there is the argument that they have moved the average down with their marketing but the statistics say that we are progressing - get on board! It is WIP, it is not perfect, it is progress.
If you are below average, say thanks to the automation, if you are above average (as are all Pprune members) then contribute your experience to the continous improvement!
In this particular crash , I think we are going to see shock waves everywhere. At these levels of reliability is is rather expensive to do (true) preventive, the most cost effective is fast reactive, I think in an ideal world we would like to think that the pitots and training had been changed after the first 10-15 cases without waiting for the big one.
