Originally Posted by
Pugilistic Animus
DW why are you picking on us so much today
I'm not picking on you in the singular or plural, sir. I'm just trying to make sure the terminology is understood and that the right argument is used for the right situation.
"Children Of The Magenta" may be an effective rallying cry, but the fact is that I've seen the video appear on pretty much every accident/incident thread over the last few years, regardless of how relevant it may be. I don't think there is a broad agenda of the kind that Capt. Bloggs describes, but I do think there's a growing gap in understanding between airline management and line pilots when it comes to effective understanding and use of automation.
To the MBA generation making up modern management, technology of any kind is simply a magic box which can be used to improve efficiency and increase revenue. The ironic coincidence is that the skillset that it takes to be a good technologist and the skillset it takes to be a competent pilot overlap considerably. I suspect that in the past when computing was still in the academic phase, a great number of my colleagues would have become pilots or aero engineers instead, had we been of that era and not this.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that in a general sense I am actually on your (as in the pilots') side. The reason I'm always so picky about getting the terminology right is that should it come down to a public confrontation in court or in the press between pilots and management and a pilot representative mixes up - for example - FBW and envelope protection with automation, then the management representatives will have hired an expensive "expert" who will not be on your side to discredit them and paint them as alarmist.