SASless
Why do you think North Sea Pilots have poor skills?
I don't think that NS pilots have poor skills it is just that their hand flying skills do get degraded over time.
I joined the NS in 1990 to fly the 332L and began line flying up to the Shetland Basin. At that time the company mainly had long range contracts so we would sit in the cruise for 2-2.5 hrs with the height hold in and adjusting the heading every so often using the bug. We would take turns flying sectors so generally the Capt flew out and the Co-Pilot back. The rig landing pilot would be decided by the wind direction. So in a 5.5hr flight I might handle the controls for
5-10MINS. A 5000hr NS pilot could have, therefore, about 200hrs actually flying the 332L plus an hour for each base check he has done!
I don't know if the expressions "getting into an a/c" and "putting an a/c on" are familiar to you as a cousin but I felt I was "getting into an a/c" when I flew the line ie I didn't feel fully at one with it, I felt I couldn't read what it was doing. I then transferred to shuttle operations on the 332L this entailed very short sectors - hand flown and up to 21 landings a sortie - both day and night. I soon felt I was "putting an a/c on" as I could sense what it was doing - I didn't need to always check speeds/height etc as my spatial awareness was so much better as I flew the a/c more.
I think this is what is happening in the NS. You might join with good handling skills but they degrade with time and lack of practice. The relentless pressure to use the autopilot functions at every opportunity - driven by whom?? Just exacerbates the problem.
If I was HC's Dicator I would mandate that manual flying should be done at every opportunity but set wx limits for when the autopilot should be used. The NS does have some fine weather days when manual approaches can be safely flown to rigs and runways.
If the NS mantra is always use the autopilot as it is safer actually admits that NS pilots are not capable of safe manual approaches.
There is something wrong! We shouldn't see perfectly serviceable a/c ending up in the water
HF