When to use the automation?
I feel for the Chief Pilot who has to put the company policy on the use of automation in writing and then stand by it. How do you ignore the fact that using it (correctly of course) is much safer than not. Open the door to pilot discretion and you open yourself to the kind of incidents we have seen punctuating operations around the world.
When I read a TR syllabus and observe the absence of 'effects of controls' and 'trim management' in Lesson One I despair that we will ever get things right. Maybe I'm old school but to me success begins with getting the basics right.
To enable the SFI to check that the controls are being used correctly the sim instructor needs to be able to see the pilot's hands from his IOS and a simulator that does not allow that shows a worrying ignorance on the part of the sim designers and those that certified it.
G.