Originally Posted by A33Zab
IMO if after these actions BOTH pilots lacks the monitoring of their instruments(Altitude, Airspeed+trend, V/S, Attitude, FMA)
and the lack of CRM after audible warnings accompanied with MW then there is a major problem with the MEN.
A33Zab, I understand where you are coming from, but it goes deeper than that. The present autoflight interface in cruise allows the pilots to completely mentally disconnect from the process of flying the aircraft. All they have to do is be sure that every few minutes they come back to the big picture of where they are and make sure things are on track.
It is humanly impossible to maintain full mental involvement in the flight process while a computer carries out the real work. After a period of time, the mind drifts elsewhere, despite the best of intentions.
The interface needs to more fully involve the pilots in the flight process. There is no reason that the pilots could not actually fly the aircraft while the computer looks ahead for a possible altitude bust and performs the instructor function to improve pilot skill. How that is best done is up to the software development folks, but I am willing to bet there is a solution.
Might want to swap the PF/PNF functions every 15 minutes or so however.