gums, re, "PJ's war story about his checkout using otto for 90% of the profile scares the hell outta me. I can understand the emphasis upon all the things otto can do, will do, is supposed to do. But first ya gotta learn to fly the plane, huh?"
Well, at the time it wasn't worrying because we knew how to fly transports; we knew high-altitude, swept-wing flight from experience having flown the DC8, DC9, B727 and whatnot so learning the automation was a natural progression.
That was then and now is now, and we have been witnessing the results of that largely-unexamined training policy/priority and yes, it concerns me greatly, otherwise quite frankly I wouldn't be spending time writing about it so often - I believe here we are speaking to a great many new pilots who know less about flying an aircraft than they do about automation, (I hope I am wrong), and so hopefully this discussion from the old guys who truly believe have something to say in this instance, will have some effect in what I consider a very real and pressing problem in our industry, (and in others as they permit their professional responsibilities to be removed to the software engineers' desks).
It is a matter of record that as pilots we brought these issues to the fore decades ago, but the problem was essentially invisible to those governing the industry until AF447 and a few other stall accidents. The difficulty faced is the inertia generated by an entire generation focussed on the magenta line, so to speak.
The individual "testimonials" offered are less relevant than the shift in thinking regarding how automation must serve and not rule or supplant our thinking. That is traditionally a very difficult area for those who are primarily aviators or airline management to think in and do something about.
mm43, re, " Hopefully, a new era is upon us where those involved in air transport ops will also have the same awareness.", I am hopeful too and I see changes but nowhere near sufficient to counter the "vector" that automation has taken us. We are infatuated with technique at the expense of, and which has displaced "the art".