Well,all this talk is well and good but no one has the guts to say what is obvious.Airmanship is not taught and nurtured anymore,especially in Asia/Africa.Was it ever I hear you ask.Cant say third world anymore as its verboten.They only teach SOP's and rote automated flight.Even the supposed legacy carriers in the region like Jet Airways.I witnessed the CP of Adamair(same airline where this Air Asia pilot previously worked) land at Pontianak with flaps 15 and a touchdown speed of 175 knots.Ive seen it all and its a long list of woe believe me including:
-wx radar brightness at min during day so no returns showing
-attempting to traverse storm cells with range set to 80 leading to blind alley
-afraid to disengage AP unless below 500
-flying manually(those brave enough to try) with AT engaged and unable to maintain alt in a turn
-No idea of N1 and pitch for different flight regimes
-unwilling and unable to fly a standard visual approach
-following magenta line into storm cells(that was Air India Express at Calicut)
-blocking out all the flight deck windows with the Jakarta Times
-totally lost without flight director
-plethora of hot and high approaches(AP engaged with GS capture,speed building and cant take flap)-classic case and very frequent due military airspace and late descent clearance-dont understand concept of energy management when forced to maintain altitude
-focus on complex unnecessary SOP(look at Lionairs lights policy for example-Its a landing light for Gods sake,put it on when youre landing and no it doesnt matter who puts it on) all the while neglecting to instill basic flight skills in their pilots.
-not being able to work out descent profile but blindly following VNAV even if its not appropiate to reality
-cant fly in HSI mode,only MAP..whats a VOR?NDB?Raw data anyone?No,just give me that good old magenta line.
-putting FO's on line who cant takeoff/land and its approved by their CAA even without a third pilot
-Pilots with 5000+ hours who have never not used autobrake
-hard landings
-bounced landings
-FDM used incorrectly as a means of intimidation so basic flight skills(manual flight ILS/visual approach) cant be practiced on line
The list goes on.I should write a book.How I escaped flying in the Far East and lived to tell the tale.
The way I see it is we need to call a worldwide conference and look at what automation,SOP/rote focus and P2F has done to our profession.Let the airlines who still know a thing or two about real flying(airmanship) like Qantas/SWA/BA/Lufty take the lead and see what we can do to stamp out this menace that is giving our profession a bad name.Because if we dont do something about it and planes keep crashing because there was no glidelsope or because they pulled rather than pushed in a stall we may just find ourselves redundant.Right now a pilotless airliner is bad joke but who knows in 20 years?