In my B75/767 days the SBY instruments (tiny little beggars) were all that was left when the A.C. went AWOL. It was a requirement in my hi-skill-set thinking airline that an upgrade command course included an ILS flown solely on these tiny displays. It was perfectly possible if you knew pitch/power and could trim the a/c accurately. It was what was necessary in a total A.C. failure. By luck, or bad luck, one day in the RST sim, the RMI failed as well. This meant using the real SBY liquid filled compass. The kit was on board and you should be able to make safe use of it. The TRE wanted to stop the exercise because of a 'sim fault' but decided to let to run. It worked out OK and both I and the F/O learnt a great CRM lesson as his monitoring skills were enhanced. It helped to work out the expected drift angle on finals and so alert him what the datum HDG was supposed to be. (Now there's a new one for the new guys. How to calculate an expected drift angle)
Now, it is a common customer option to have a large shiny PFD on SBY electrics. It's minus the FD and speed bugs and a few other toys, but the large ATT & ILS displays are there and a large speed tape. The tiny SBY's are still there but no-one looks at them. Try inserting some Map shift and see if the guys look at the needles. Is the ASI only there to have a 2 out of 3 voting system? What is the SBY ILS for? If they are there then you should be able to use them when all else fails. With todays FD dependant pilots I wonder what would happen if they were required to fly an ILS on just the small cousins of the PFD/ND. I suspect it would be quite hairy and entertaining to watch, but I'm certain the guys would find it great fun, and after a couple of practices and a safe performance, they would applaud the chance to try and learn. It would awaken the realisation of how lazy their scan had become and how agricultural their handling skills were.
For those airlines that live in fear of their pilots actually touching the controls with real hands, but can't find a solution to re-establish those skills, this exercise every 12 months would be a sharpener at minimal cost. Knowing it was coming would encourage guys to keep their scan sharp. That is often the root cause of bad handling; where to look for the information and how to adjust the a/c accordingly. I'm not saying such a simple exercise will suddenly solve all the problems discussed here, but I think it would be a positive productive start.
Last edited by RAT 5; 18th Apr 2015 at 13:44.