PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Automation vs Seat-of-the-pants-flying talking as devil's advocate - so no abuse plea
Old 16th Aug 2013, 22:22
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flarepilot
 
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dear sheppey

the observation (and thank you) is from a major argument I had with the professor occupying the boeing chair at M.I.T. (mass institute of technology) in 1992 or so.

he was explaining to me why skilled pilots would no longer be needed as boeing and airbus had adopted the philosophy that automation would take care of everything.

I asked him what a 300 hour pilot flying a plane the size of a l747 would do when the gadgets quit.

he simply said: they won't quit.

a really good pilot, who keeps his skills high by practice, and a plane with good automation, intuitive to a good pilot, can't be beat. but a crummy pilot with a good automation plane is asking for trouble.

even now we are finding problems with robotic surgery, and I recall when San Francisco built the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. They were going to run the rail trains without drivers...but the computer system didn't quite work right.

oops (oh and the drivers may be on strike soon)
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