PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Practicing manual flying in jet transport ops.
Old 14th Mar 2014, 00:55
  #79 (permalink)  
Ollie Onion
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
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I would argue that the reason that pilots of the Asiana / Airfrance / Lion Air breed have crap hand flying skils is because they never had any to start with. Pilots with a few thousand hours of which 99.9% of them are on airliners using the autopilot means that they have no base to work from. I would also say that in the airliner with paying passengers is not the place to 'learn' these skills, maybe we need to rethink the training path taken by some of these pilots today.

Have you guys looked in these modern DA42 type trainers, the glass cockpit is more advanced that any airliner I have flown. Couple that with the very rigid airline SOP type training and then hundreds of hours in the a320 or 737 simulator to qualify and we are 'producing' generations of 'competent' airline pilots with next to no hand flying skills.

One of my check captains said to me recently that he doesn't feel the need to 'practice' lots of hand flying as he thinks it is a skill that once learned only required minimal practice to keep proficient. I have to say that I kind of agree. I went flying the other day in a C172 for the first time in 15 years, my first circuit was a bit rough and by the time I had done 3 they were pretty good, so 30 - 40 minutes of hands on time was all that was required after 15 years of not having flown an aircraft with a yoke or trim wheel.
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