I regularly invited F/O's to hand fly at > FL370. Some said "yes please"; some said "are we allowed to?"; some said, "why?". The 'brave' ones found the feel most enlightening when turning or climbing & descending. The delicacy required for turns, and the tiny attitude changes required in pitch were educational.
Before it was clamped down upon by my then current carrier we had the opportunity to make a visual demo in Poland. 15nm out, FL 100 250kts, perpendicular to runway, severe clear, gentle wind, choice of runway.
The no-aid runway was better for the apron. Everything off, a calm descending CDA overhead the upwind end, into downwind, into a short baseleg and finals, spool up at 2-3nm. No worries (as they say). Good fun too.
F/O was wide-eyed. "where did you learn to do that? We are not taught to do that. I wish we could try it more often." Good attitude. The real answer was "because that was the norm in yester-year."
Then the G/A's increased and the 'wet-blanket' brigade took over. VNAV/LNAV + FD + AT (preferably + AP) to OM finals. Would that the FAA had some influence in all European operators. Some follow the new philosophy, some are diametrically opposed.
I did ask: "if so much was invested in base training, i.e. no FD visual circuits to short finals, why were they not permitted on the line?" The answer was that it was rare to do level flight arrivals so downwind timing was not available, and without that DR guidance there would be too many hot/high short finals = too many costly GA's. No opportunity to train the manoeuvre, so better to use the AFDS/FMC guidance to longer finals and preferably AP & AT in CMD. i.e. it's cheaper (safer) to prohibit such 'cowboy' manoeuvres than train the crews properly.
I know that sounds simplistic, but that's how it is with many outfits worldwide.
However, in discussion about this with friends in various national legacy carriers, and others in more longer established large charter airlines, this type of flying is still there norm when environment & traffic allow. As a pax into various smaller EU airfields it is obvious when the sky is clear the guys are enjoying some normal piloting to get us on the deck quickly. All with out drama.
One mitigating parameter is that many legacy carriers operate from one main base and the larger charter companies operate from one country and only a few bases. Thus the Flt Ops & Training depts have a better oversight of techniques & standards. With the rapid expansion of younger operators, with most of their bases over the horizon and therefore a tenuous oversight, I can understand them adopting a much more rigid attitude. It has allowed the embryonic growth to huge unexpected levels so fast. How do they adopt a new attitude to follow the FAA ethics? Difficult.
Last edited by RAT 5; 19th Jan 2016 at 13:22.