“… are there really 'pilots' on the line out there who cannot fly without a FD …’ many posts imply that there are, but equally all pilots could encounter mental blocks which limit ‘the hands on’ abilities due to the surprise of a situation.
Slide 2 > in
Managing Startle identifies the mental condition of normalcy, where the 'conditioned response' to a surprising event is to revert to normal operations, i.e. it is difficult to remember not to use the FD in a stall.
The complexity of modern operation could sway pilots to seek the ‘comfort blanket’ of the FD for a range of normal situations, not the hazardous surprising events, but the ‘surprises’ of normal flight because these events had not been considered or anticipated. Thus the issue of ‘cannot fly without the FD’ could be rooted much deeper in our industry – normal operations, training, policy, philosophy (pilot as a hazard vs pilot as an asset).
Also see the presentation on
AoA research.
Slide 16 shows that pilots seek ‘what to do’ information in critical situations (Rule based thinking, not SOPs).
The FD supplies 'what to do' information and thus reduces workload vice flying raw data, which requires Knowledge-based thinking to generate an understanding of the situation and then the required actions.
Memory fades, but my aircraft did not remove the FD when approaching or at the stall; the autopilot was disengaged at stick shake. But even with an 'erroneous' FD display, stall recovery was not a problem because the stick-push provided the overriding ‘what to do’ action, this is similar to a protected FBW aircraft.
However, in FBW aircraft without protection (no automatic recovery action) then pilots even more so seek ‘what to do’ and if the FD apparently provides that, then it is used, probably without consideration of validity or applicability due to expectation.
The governing activity in the choice of what to do is in the mind – what to do, not how to do it physically.
What would an FD show in a stall, almost certainly a pitch up command; returning to the set altitude, vertical flt path, or vertical speed. This assumes that there are few attitude hold systems or if there are that mode is infrequently used.
An airspeed mode (other than with AT control – generally in the cruise), could indicate a reduction in pitch.