Looking at your profile I suspect that if not that, maybe a Hunter, Tucano and/or Jag, probably roundabout 93-97 at BDN ? Would I be right in guessing that you were a tutor on 20FTE/55FW course? I hope that having joined Pprune you'll come over and contribute to the FT forum occasionally.
I accept that a degree of control is certainly a good thing, but I think there is so much that the increased risk of miscontrol is far greater than the risk of failure would be due to automation in many aircraft.
What I suggested in my first post was an extreme view - I'd not personally wish to do away with a manual fuel cut-off for example (even if the codes would let me !). But carb-heat for example is successfully automated with near 10^5 reliability for a very low cost on many microlights, so I can't see why it can't be fitted onto a light aircraft. Ditto choke/prime and friction without any reduction in safety - I can think of many problems caused by having a primer control on a Lycoming and none prevented by one.
G
Last edited by Genghis the Engineer; 8th Jan 2003 at 19:41.