A Boeing test pilot told a friend of mine who was a simulator instructor on the 787. "Boeing have designed the 787 assuming it will be flown by incompetent pilots
I recently checked the listings offered in the 'XXXXX for dummies.' library. Couldn't find B787. Perhaps FCOM should be retitled.
What is a fact is that Boeing FCOMs in last 25 years, ever since EFIS FMC a/c were introduced, now contain less & less technical information than previous generation a/c. Added to that is the universal acceptance of CBT self-study of technical training, multiple choice questions and little chalk & talk wash-ups at the end of the day by a knowledgeable engineer. Couple this with the limited knowledge gained during TR courses and the a/c knowledge of today's pilot, compared to yesteryear, is minimal. Don't think, just do. OK, sometimes you can out-think the QRH and dump yourself in a load of poo; but I found it disappointing/frustrating in FFS TR sessions, with non-normals, that the students were not aware about why the QRH was instructing them do make certain selections and take certain actions. It was as if they had dumped all their ground school from a couple of weeks earlier and were following instructions blindly. You might get away with it for a simple single failure, but not always with multiple failures or failures which did not fit into the QRH box.