There is no doubt in my mind that the use of automation have had a large positive impact in aviation safety overall.
All due respect but that is the statement of the year
Obviously improving automation and navigation systems will make flying safer
Is this a debate on whether you should hand fly or use automation? I don't think so?
its a debate on whether crews rely too much on automation and in that process are ignoring basic handling skills.
with aeroplanes everything is fine while its fine its when things go wrong that a pilots skills have to be second to none.
To keep those skills honed a pilot needs to handfly the aircraft as much as possible when conditions allow.
Are you saying that keeping those skills honed somehow will increase the accident rates ?
If you are you might as well take that argument to a conclusion and go fully automated replacing the in that case the joke of a name like PILOT for a computer monitoring nerd " This is your CMN speaking" Not pilot /Captain