Another look at the Ethiopean Airlines 737-800 crash at Beirut.

[goldfish85]

Early in my career, a senior captain told me the most important FD mode was "off."


Goldfish

[Phantom Driver]

Early in my career, a senior captain told me the most important FD mode was
"off."

Really?!...

[mates rates]

I agree Goldfish,

If you can't fly it with the F/D OFF you shouldn't be there !!

[Heading180]

I also agree - crews should be able to fly a raw data approach.

[A37575]

Not only does this report highlight the critical need for some hands on instrument time

Several decades ago the only time a pilot could legally log instrument flight time was in IMC without the automatic pilot. In other words real hands on instrument flying. Employers would closely scrutinize a pilots instrument flying hours to determine a candidates real experience. Mind you, it was not hard to cheat and log the hours in clear air and it could not be easily proved otherwise. Experienced chief pilots could usually twig though.
Nowadays, it is legal to log all IMC flight on automatic pilot as instrument flight time. What is the point of that since it is worthless in real terms?

Thus one now sees pilots with thousands of hours purported instrument flight time in their log books which is not worth a pinch of salt since the pilot is monitoring - not actually hands on flying on instruments. No wonder there are prangs due to incompetent instrument flying.

ICAO rules introduced many years ago, by permitting autopilot IMC time to be logged, immeasurably dumbed down the original concept of logging of instrument flight time as a measure of a pilots true instrument flying experience.

[IcePack]

B'dy heck. I haven't bothered to log any instrument flying in the last 18000 hrs,
Just assumed A/C >5700kg had to be flown on instruments whatever the weather.

[Prober]

Flying Average (?)

Having training experience in both short and long haul, it quickly became apparent to me that thousands of hours long haul counted for very little when weighed against the number of sectors achieved in short haul. I tend to agree with IcePack (#47) and that credence for instrument hours is rather worthless if it is achieved as PM (which is what the PF is doing with A/P engaged).
Maybe it is time for those now in control of the situation to give serious consideration to altering ones legal “experience count” from hours alone to hours divided by the number of sectors. This might seem cumbersome, but in these days of computerized log books, for those with high hours/sectors, it should present little problem. Would such a change be of benefit to the profession?
Prober

[sabenaboy]

One more off-topic reply

I don't think a pilot's logbook says much about his ability.
Is a 15000 hr captain better then a 5000 hr one?
Is someone with 15000 landings a better pilot then someone with only 3000 landings?

Although experience can be valuable, it's certainly NOT a guaranteed factor to judge a pilot!!

And even though I'm a big advocate of keeping hand flying skills and raw data flying up to date, I still think that to be a good pilot nowadays means that you have to be a good systems manager (that includes being proficient in manual handling) with excellent crm skills!

The number of landings or hours logged (imc or not) is no guarantee for being a good, safe pilot.

Now allow me to suggest to get back to the topic.
If you want to continue talking about the use or not of automation during flight, I suggest you to revive this topic I once started:
Your airlines' policy about the use of automation during flight?