Hi Sabenaboy
I quote myself
In my opinion, with actual technology there should be a way to fly an airplane halfway between manually and using automation. By manually I mean zero automation, and I am not referring to the FD bars.
This "hybrid" way of flying would be such that the pilot would have to to the thinking and to have controls like in a Cessna, but the system would warn the pilot and come up to assist when it was departing the intended flight path or getting close to envelope limits.
Imagine that you want to fly an ILS and instead of the AP/FD A/THR, you use the "HYBRID" mode, in which the AP/FD approach mode is standing by. If you are rusty or that day is not your day, or you are a 200 hr trainee with a lot to learn and you go too far off the beam, then the bars come up. The procedure is that if they come up, you follow the bars, engage A/THR and even engage AP depending on circumstances.
WIth such a system, pilots would remain highly skilled and we would still benefit from the increased safety that we owe to automation.
And we would have so much more fun!
What do you think of this brilliant idea of mine? I am outraged that no one commented it!
It could satisfy both the manufacturers, the operators, the pilots and the authorities, because automation would still be there, normally, and sometimes it would be there, although standing by.
It would be something like
arming the FD. And even the A/THR. These would be activated only if required by the system
I find this idea very nice, mainly because I had it. But it has more and more good points the more I think about it. I like those systems that are complementary to the human being, rather than substitutes. TCAS and GPWS are such systems. They complement deficiencies of the human being, but they don't substitute us. We need safety nets, rather than delegating more and more in a system which in the end is also prone to failure, and that when it fails things will be complicated due to pilot atrophy.
I wish my airline had your policy, but it does not. It recommends highest use of automation, although it leaves a tiny chance for practice.