Better handling skills are always going to be useful provided you have the time to use them. An aircrafts EGPWS will provide crews with the necessary time to use those skills in most scenarios. The Morecambe bay accident may have been prevented by a current EGPWS. However it won’t help you when your airspeed decays then vertical speed increases and you’re on an insidious flight path to result in hurtling towards the ground with little or no airspeed whilst distracted. The radalt won’t provide you with sufficient time to use your better handling skills.
Assuming that some pilots will still not adhere to the message in the magenta kids video or still become distracted during critical flight phases. Why not have a system that alerts the pilot of low airspeed prior to the vertical speed problem, prior to the proximately with terrain/water problem? The S-92 has a min IFR speed yet no means of alerting the pilot of an unsafe flight configuration, as you slow beyond it. The current EGPWS modes could do with an update.
Our training could be improved by emphasising the shortcomings of automation more. Generally we’re only taught how to use the AP functions. A chunk of time should be dedicated to demonstrating the APs gotchas in the aircraft and the sim……….As well as, improving SOPs, checklists, flight safety culture etc.
Last edited by IFR Piglet; 10th Sep 2013 at 10:01.