The pilot insisted that the ILS be turned on, otherwise they would require another runway. My question is, was this crew just being difficult, or is there some general rule that would prevent them from simply following the pink line, or quickly loading the RNAV approach?
Had the Captain flown with the F/o before? If not and the f/o was PF then the Captain might not be too keen to roll the dice on the f/o doing a good job of it.
Was it the Captains first month of command and they were dead keen on being conservative for a few months until they settled in?
Did they have an MEL that increased their workload a bit and the Captain decided any increase in workload wasn't in the interests of safety?
Was it the second sector of command upgrade line flying with a check Captain in the right seat? ( Asiana anyone?)
Was it an annual line check on an experienced Captain who learnt decades ago to keep it simple when being checked?
Had they forgotten to put the seatbelt signs on earlier and were glad of the chance to give the cabin a bit more time?.......Silly I know but there are hundreds of quite legitimate reasons to operate in a conservative manner. A change to the plan late in the piece at an unfamiliar airport at night is not ideal, so if it can be easily avoided then it should be easily avoided IMO.
That said........ I don't think we hand fly visual approaches enough and as a result pilots are losing confidence in their own abilities to fly aircraft. It is a trend that needs addressing but I doubt this was the time to be addressing it.