Somehow or other there is a thread on 'Terms & Endearment' that has morphed into Piloting Skills, so I copy here.
Go practice raw data, crosswinds, OEI, etc in the excellent FB SIM facility
How on earth can you practice/improve/maintain handling skills to cope with challenging manoeuvres in a Fixed Base sim?
In this discussion there has been a mix up between manual flying & raw data flying. Is it sensible to fly a raw data ILS on a low cloud base day into a busy airport with a complicated GA with fare paying pax who want to be on time? Probably not. Is it fair on a 1000' cloud base day? Possibly, but that would likely give you only 1500' to play with, and the ILS is not so sensitive at that range; so is it worth it for learning? Perhaps. Manual FD ILS should present no problem down to 500'. If you can't then you shouldn't be there. The next is a manual visual arrival. That should be like riding a bike. There should not be any increase in workload, but that will only be if the skill is kept sharp. We are back to the old argument of the pilot being the last chance insurance policy when the automatics and other systems go AWOL. The pax, and I as CEO, would expect my crews to cut it and bring home the bacon; un-BBQ'd. But there will be those who can't, and it won't be their fault, necessarily.
Much depends on SOP's. I once flew jump seat during base training. There was a very experienced DC-8 captain trying to wrestle a B757 round the circuit with FD, as per SOP. That meant lots of talking to PM to set MCP. He was struggling and his confidence dropping into a dangerous downward spiral. I suggested to the TRE to switch off the FD. The guy flew it round on rails; silently.
We pinged it into Corfu, Kos, Samos, Zakinthos etc. and even LGW & LTN when allowed. There was no increase in workload because we both could do it and we both knew what the other guy was going to do without a 2 page briefing of when he was going to pick his nose and scratch his backside. He might take flaps & gear slightly different to you, but, if it was within safe parameters, all was cool. If not, then you screamed, gently.
I found flying an LNAV/VANV visual circuit was a huge increase in workload because I could not think ahead of the a/c as an instinctive pilot, be ahead of the a/c and control it: I was following the damn FMC as some play station.
It might be true that full use of automatics, when & if they are fully understood, is a very safe manner to operate, perhaps the safest. If those systems are not fully understood we have seen what happens and then it was not the safest manner. Going into some large airports ATC is effectively dictating how the a/c is operated. They give HDG, SPD, ALT from 30nm out to 'push the tin' with efficient flow. It is the simplest just to input the numbers into the MCP that ATC instruct you with. You select flaps & gear to comply with those speeds. No judgement. Tickling the V/S for a CDA if appropriate. However, any CEO should not expect any critical reduction in safety should the pilots be required to operate manually due to simple failures. This accidents we seen on Air Crash recently, where the crews have had huge control problems and survived are a testament to the skills of a pilot, and huge amounts of luck. But a Gary Player said, "the more I practice the luckier I become."
Last edited by RAT 5; 28th Feb 2017 at 08:34.