Sofaman;
My humble point was indeed that simply focusing on everyday practice in the
daily work environment instead of more fancy settings seems like a useful and
realistic approach to me. Of course one can ask for top-gun line pilots who
(after grueling selection and hypertough training) could safely pick up
handkerchiefs with their wingtip (inverted in case of good weather), hand-fly a
CAT III approach in a snowstorm on one engine and standby instrumens, and ace
the most challenging sim exercises blindfolded, one-handed, and with ping-pong
balls thrown at them while the check pilot belts out "You’ve lost that lovin’
feelin’". But somehow I feel that concentrating on just being at ease with
normal manual flying in day-to-day operations whenever the situation permits
without nibbling away at any safety margins is the more promising approach
Nicely put. Just that "whenever the situation permits" is less and less an option these days. We're not flying DC 3's anymore. This is the era of RNP/RVSM/ Crowded ATC/Low cost carriers filling the skies. Manual flying, as we used to know it, is no longer feasible, especially for long haul operators; Just invites you to the office for tea and biccys for some violation or other, be it company ops or ATC.
Like it or not, we are in the autopilot era, and so be it. However, I do wholeheartedly agree that manual flying skills need to be reinforced. I have preached ad nauseam on this forum that this should be done in the sim and not on day to day line ops. However, sim training these days seems to focus on LOFT exercises.
Jeez, on one LPC. we spent 1 hour doing low vis taxi around AMS followed by full de-ice procedures before getting airborne! What a waste of sim time. This sort of stuff should be reserved for the MFTD. Full flight sim time should involve more raw data manual flying business; that's where you find out if guy's still have the "Right Stuff", but then, in many companys that may not be politically correct or accepatable (too many failures?)
So automation continues to rule, 24/7. That is modern day Aviation Life.