900 hours a year, 4 sector days, busy airspace, pilots straight from cessnas into highly automated jets. This is European flying in 2016.
It's no surprise to me that the industry standard is to use the automatics to free up capacity and mask an increasing level of low experience.
Years ago a wise old Captain told me that he had no problem with hand flying provided that it was done following a briefing and advance notice to the PM who will end up doing more work, but suggested that I consider whether the first first or last sectors of the week were the right time to show off my silky flying skills.
I felt that was reasonable advice and I stick to it. What amazes me is the number of my FO's who only disengage at +100.
