Originally Posted by RWA
I couldn't agree more. Both main manufacturers and the airlines are leaning more and more towards a situation where the 'systems' hold sway and the pilots are virtually forbidden to fly manually
Nonsense. 'Systems' are there to be used by crews when appropriate just as manual flying is when appropriate.
Originally Posted by RWA
It's worth bearing in mind, too, that the 'first duty' of flightcrews nowadays is 'listening to the systems.
Wrong. The 'first duty' of crews is to fly the aircraft. Whether that is done manually or via the 'systems' you tell the aircraft what you want and then monitor the response.
Originally Posted by RWA
it's fair to say that, as far as I know, the flight-crew's first duty would have been to 'plough through' all the error messages, one by one, with the PNF reading them out and the PF acknowledging and clearing them, before they actually DID anything about them.......
Then you don't know very far. The 'first duty' of any crew is to fly the aircraft. Any other actions are secondary and are to be performed when not interfering with flying the aircraft.
Being a mere amateur you are perhaps excused, but with the amount of nonsense already posted there is no need to add more.