Airbus Official Urges Major Pilot Training Changes

[Mach E Avelli]

The cure for this lazy attitude is in the hands of the checkies.
Once the word is out that every simulator check will include a significant amount of manual flying with at least one raw data ILS to a missed approach, pilots soon lift their game by sneaking in practice on the line.
Chuck in the occasional LOFT where failures degrade to emergency power and limited instrumentation, or iced-up static sources, to further concentrate their minds on the importance of maintaining basic skills. Even if LOFT is supposedly non-jeopardy, if pilots crash the simulator, checkies should require a repeat session. That costs money. Management eventually get the message and rewrite the book to allow manual skills practice during normal line flying and under suitable conditions.
Line training and checks are the low cost/no cost place to consolidate 'normal' use of all automation. After initial type rating, a significant proportion of simulator hours in the training budget should be available to reinforce survival skills, yet too often it is regarded simply as an unwelcome impost to tick boxes on a form.