Pilot experience reduced by flight automation
Man Bilong Balus long PNG
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Looking forward to returning to Japan soon but in the meantime continuing the never ending search for a bad bottle of Red!
Age: 69
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Talking to a newly minted PPL recently, on his way to a CPL.
Was astounded to hear he is already a regular user of the auto-pilot.
Was astounded to hear he is already a regular user of the auto-pilot.
When I did my CPL flight test in mid '85, the first words the Testing officer said once we were seated in the a/c (A PA-34
) were''For this flight, your autopilot and all navaids are unserviceable!"
As I had not used any of the abovementioned in my training flights, there was no problem.
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Australia
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And another one involving about an hour of hand flying with no hydraulics, to landing (better than a workout at the gym).
Time permitting from regulatory exercises, I would hazard a guess that most pilots would prefer to practice circuits and landings without the aid of the automatics goodies. That helps rapid scan practice especially with occasional strong crosswind components. Or set the simulator for black hole approaches with a go around at the flare on instruments. Innovation is fine within reason in the simulator but it must be valid and of definite use to the pilot rather than the hack-flick -zoom double flameout while inverted sort of exercises.
