Loss of control or lack of control – which end of the piece of string?
Centaurus,
Would it be true to say that all pilots should be equally competent at automation skills and pure flying skills? Mmm … a challenging thought.
This depends on what is meant by competency – “A collection of related abilities, commitments, knowledge and skills that enable a person (or an organisation) to act effectively in a job or situation.” This is a vague definition, like saying ‘how long is a piece of string’.
Competency, like string, depends where the ends are – the initial training and the final objectives, and where the competency is to be used. What are the abilities, knowledge and skills; these depend on the context, the situation.
Furthermore, I would hesitate to compare automation skills with flying skills. Removing the physical coordination aspects, then cognitive skills predominate. Superficially, these would not differ between old (manual) and new (auto) aircraft, however the sensed information and display media may be different, changes in tactile feedback, information content, and computer aided decision making.
If these changes are significant for cognition, I think they are, then pilots require a different set of skills and competencies for automatic flight, but then you still need back-up for the occasions when automation is not providing assistance. In these circumstances, the manual flight skills in auto aircraft are similar to older aircraft, but the level of competency may not have to be the same, only enough to cope with the foreseeable situations. As is realized with AF 447 not all situations are foreseeable.
In other LOC accidents, foreseeable circumstances were encountered but were not recognized or they were handled incorrectly (also factors in AF 447).
IMHO this suggests weaknesses in situation assessment and decision making skills. Thus the issue is whether these skills are absent or need to be tailored for automated aircraft operation, including failures; probably some of each.
These would not have to be specific skills, but generic abilities to assess and think about situations, using different / novel information sources, act without undue rush, and keep an open mind as situations develop. These stem from experience; so another conclusion may be that the industry is not providing an appropriate level of experience for automated flight, but not necessarily the same as for manual flight, i.e. we have been using the wrong training context.
Thus at this time I would conclude that it is not necessary to have equal competencies for manual and automatic flight, but it is necessary to have an appropriate set of competencies; and some accidents suggest that the existence of these is questionable.