Originally Posted by
Colibri49
The best protection against human error in difficult weather is a really, really good autopilot which is used to maximum effect by pilots who are well trained in its use and can monitor it intelligently, only taking over manually if necessary.
Maybe, but in the past 10 years or so I've been flying IFR offshore I've never had an autopilot to rely on so automation systems induced degradation of situational awareness has never been an issue. Neither have I ever sat in a sim let alone done any training in one. The oil company loves it, no sim training to pay for, and a very cheap basic IFR helicopter that virtually always gets through whatever the weather.
What I have found is if the weather is really bad I go VFR, because sticking to the rules under the IFR just doesn't get you where you need to go. I'm just astounded that a modern 2-crew helicopter can come to grief in a way where "technical aspects" don't seem to be involved. Maybe there's an argument to made to go back to basic stick-and-rudder flying and common sense airmanship from time-to-time, as part of a wider structured training regime, and just forget about all the complex automation stuff that time and time again we see giving rise to holes in the Swiss cheese.
Just a thought.