I think you are right, Safelife. Because when I flew in China, I was constantly practising FDs off and letting the copilot FDs off. And we never triggered any QARs, even though
we were aparently not supposed to fly FDs off. I always did it with the FOs I could trust and who wanted to become aviators. And even in China, there is people eager to become aviators.
As RAT5 said it. awe need to become aviators again. And it needs skill and a courage to stand up to the incompetence of the training departments. But it needs to be done, if we do not want to see more people killed. I am not saying, that people should fly FDs off if they are not comfortable with it. I am just saying that competent pilots should not be stopped by the training departments from properly training other people how to scan.
And if people in training departments are not competent enough, they should hire somebody competent, who could help them improve.
I am very encouraged by this thread to see that I am not alone who seems to think there is a HUGE problem in the airlines worldwide what concerns lack of basic flying skills.