Well,I've followed the thread and its been an interesting read and there have been some excellent contributions,in particular Retired F4.I dont know the Airbus so I cant comment but it seems to me pilots have to know as a memory item just what each different law implies.Precisely.They cant respond to a UAS/Stall/Upset without knowing just what level HAL is operating under and what that means to them as the pilot.Do they have trim all the way nose up,do they have to trim out of the stall themselves,etc etc.The points about the small SS,non-moving throttles,silent stabtrim all make it a high tech spaceship in Normal Law but I dont think its my kettle of fish when things go pear shape.
But for me,its about the pilot,not the Bus.The changing face of the airline pilot.Ive done a fair few contracts in my time after leaving my first and favorite airline,Dan Air.And I can tell you that on joining 80% of these airlines,nobody really cared about my flying skills or airmanship(bar the V1cut and required LPC items).What they all cared about was...did I know and follow the SOP's,cross my T's and dot my I's,and keep the automation in and watch the good ship.I rarely if ever saw sim time devoted to ex LPC items.And many instructors would reposition the sim in a perfunctory manner until the box was ticked.No expansion,no discussion,no focus on airmanship.Just whats the next box to tick.
In one airline I was supposed to follow like a monkey a set pat of intra flight deck comms when the ramp agent arrived.
I said to the line instructor,I can get the loadsheet,extract the data,enter it into the FMC with the other guy cross-checking and we can do it safely without a procedure like a monkey.This is where the airlines focus is now.Procedure.They dont want the crew thinking for themselves or flying the plane all by their lonesome.And its enforced from top down with FDM.This is where we're going wrong.This is why we get 447 and the Asiana.No basic flight skills.And its not the pilots fault.Its the people running the show that are to blame.You need old stick and rudder guys running the show in the training dept,not SOP guys.
My instructors in Dan Air were old timers and they taught me how to fly.I picked up the mundane procedures as I went along,how to do a howgozit,how to handle the comms,what section of the COM to find the holdover table etc,etc.But their focus was basic flight skills and airmanship.Their mandate was to pass that knowledge on to the right seat.They didnt give a monkeys if I got a procedure(there werent many in those halcyon days anyhow) the wrong way round just so long as I knew my pitch and EPRs for 250/210/170,I could handlfy a raw data ILS in marginal,I knew my way round the engineers panel,and I showed enthusiasm and wanted to learn what they had to show me.FOs arent like that anymore are they?They know it all already.CRM tells them theyre all entitled to equal measure.
Look at Bonin,he knew all about the ITCZ,all about the smell of ozone,all about St Elmo,all about how to fly didnt he?And now all those people are dead.And why?Its not Bonin.Nobody taught him anything in those 3000 hours.All he knew was procedure,the facade of being an airline pilot.
So whilst the Airbus definitely has some funny quirks(that latest AD OMG),whats needed is a return to flying.Fly the plane.Pure and simple.Airmanship is what will save this troubled profession.Sounds corny and old hat but its so true.Procedure last.SOPs enable 2 strangers to operate a complex piece of machinery.They have an importance but its tertiary.
Thats my take on this sorry state of affairs in our great profession.Over and out.