#126:
I'm concerned about automatic dependence diluting manual flying skills, but I'm more concerned about automatic dependency causing a dilution of airmanship
That is very well put! It needs both, but while the manual flying skills do not need to be perfect (just don't leave your flight envelope, and if you approach the edges of the envelope, stear it back into the middle of the envelope), sound judgement and decision making with good situational awareness is overall the most important.
If we think about AF447 or the Air Asia thing, it was a problem of basic flying, but not in the sense of how precisely can I fly it, but in the sense, how should my plane be flown ROUGHLY right now. You could even argue it was not about what to do, but about what surely NOT to do (pull on the stick).
This area of reasoning comes in very well with #117
This has led me to suspect that we have a strong “compliance” reflex. The first response is aimed at returning to compliance.
To be able to decide properly, when compliance is not anymore the main goal is one of the craftsman qualities a pilot should possess. We do not want too much avoidance of necessary compliance either, compliance is generally a very high contributor to safety, but when becomes the focus on compliance a burden in a specific situation?
The question is then, how can we train, build and maintain sound judgement, decision making skills, situational awareness and airmanship? I think it is a question of culture and training. You need a culture where captains show these qualities to their first officers, and over the time a common understanding developes, what is appropriate and what is not. You need SOP's who support that kind of thinking, and do not hinder it. You need regular training of crews, in simulator and in publications where such decisions are discussed. You need safety publications to sharpen the organisations mutual understanding of what is good airmanship.
And besides that, you still need the basic flying skills with pitch and power, and a good instrument scan, which comes from having a sensible culture and set of SOP for switching off the automatics.
I would disagree that it is problematic that the FCOM have less technical information then they used to have. Systems have become more complex, and as I pilot I do not need to understand them to the deepest technical level. However what I need is an understanding of what the systems are intended to do, how they are supposed to interact with each other and the environment, to make best use of them. And most importantly, I need to be able to recognise a failed system and to judge what I have to do now with the aircraft (what to do with the system comes later).