Originally Posted by stilton
I have heard that before and it is nonsense 'Airbus are designed for 3rd world Pilots'
If First world Pilots cannot understand them, how can those from more 'primitive lands'
Roger that!
I don't know who the Airbus FBW "protected" aircraft were designed for, but I'll speculate that it was designed for the European trained pilot. That is, minimal flight time (flight time is expensive and highly regulated) combined with maximum book learning and knowledge examination. The American way is just the opposite, you have to prove you could fly the airplane with extensive training and checking, but the book learning was minimal. I once flew with a pilot who took every written exam after taking a weekend "here's the answers" ground school .......but he could fly with the best of us. (Qualification: the US used to be that way, after hearing more and more about the training received by the guy who crashed his Q400 in Buffalo, NY, I have to wonder)
I think the "third world" pilot perception likely came from airline managers who misread the intent of the design.
BTW, I think most of us understand it only as well as we were trained. Someone else posted earlier that the manuals were bad. I concur. The manuals provided to pilots are minimal at best.