Sometimes quality saves the aircraft, I'm referring to the Cathay Pacific emergency landing in Hong Kong and the QANTAS A380 incident in Singapore.
The pilots involved were the cream of the crop, considerable money was spent on training them to a high standard and they enjoyed good terms and conditions of employment.
Unfortunately passengers won't pay for extra for ace pilots on the flight deck, hence the current race to the bottom with CX going from A scale to D scale and QF starting Jetstar.
Passengers complain about wanting extra legroom and better food, but when given the option of paying more for it they change their minds and go for the cheapest fare.
A B707 pilot had to be able to FLY his aircraft, there were no protections or back ups, auto pilot and flight director were rudimentary, there was no auto thrust. He had to be able to hand fly an NDB approach using pitch and power settings and manually compensate for changing wind whilst staying within tolerances. He would quite possibly finish off with a two engine landing with the rudder boost switched off in the simulator.
There is a "World no tobacco day", I propose a "No automatics day" were pilots switch off the A/P, F/D and A/THR and do without them for a whole day. I"ll make sure I'm on the ground and nowhere near an airport at the time.
