Originally Posted by Iceman50
I feel the discussion has got way too "technical" and away from what an ordinary "line pilot" would or needs to understand. I too had 20 years of no A/P nor Flight Director where you had to "fly" the aircraft.
Looks like the PPrune Administrators have fixed the problem by moving the thread into tech section. It is a natural progression for long term threads it seems.
Iceman, the problem as I see it is that the majority of new guys hitting the airlines do not have the same background and experience that we have acquired, nor will they be getting it in the typical airline flying environment. It is FUBAR, but that seems to be the way things are going. The AF447, and Colgan accidents are representative of this newly developing trend. Where it ends, who knows? In the meantime, the airframe manufacturers had better be looking for ways to protect this new type of pilot better. Whenever I see an area that needs improvement, I try to point it out.
I assume you would be perfectly comfortable, given a sufficiently maneuverable aircraft, to perform aerobatics by instruments at night by with no visible horizon. I get the feeling that the majority of the new airline input would look at you like you were crazy if you asked them to do that.
Different times with new economic factors at work since you and I entered aviation.