One day you may be on the receiving end of "Murphy's Law" and be served up a turd sandwich...You may then have no choice but to Hand fly with "No Automatics" and plenty of other distractions to be managed...There are plenty of incidents even quite recently where this has happened. At the end of the day, this is what we are paid for.
I do acknowledge that there is a push by the airlines industry wide to encourage the maximum use of automation. However, Flying an aircraft is our bread and butter, and it behoves us all to maintain these "skills", whether that be in the aircraft or if SOP's do not allow in the Simulator. I do believe the Airlines Training departments should be dedicating more time in the Simulator to maintain and hone basic flying skills.
Last edited by Jimothy; 11th Mar 2014 at 01:20.