Only Charlton Heston could do that (as well as dodge an A36
without using TCAS) but of course he had a REAL aeroplane.

<--skip to 01.00

Have a look at this Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) issued by the FAA on 4 jan 2013.

Glad to see that the FAA is now encouraging what my company has been doing all along.

I can't see the FAA recommendation changing the use of all automatics policies of Emirates, Ethiad, Singapore Airlines, China Air, Air China, and all the other big players in the airline transport industry. Nice try, though but another case of re-inventing the wheel.

Manual operations
 

Isnt that what "handling" sims are for?... Seems best to practice in the box more often than the aircraft with punters on board to me... But that might require more training resources, hence cost in order to satisfy all the other Apollo 13 scenarios demanded in the semi annual matrix of events wja

I don't know about your airline but in mine we get one handling sim a year... even counting the twice-yearly OPC you would only be practising three times a year. I don't know about you, but I need at least one hand-flown (ideally raw data) approach a month to keep the rust off my scan and confidence in my skills.

I am honestly puzzled, what is the big deal with, er, a pilot simply flying his/her airplane, regardless of there being "punters on board" or not? :confused:

It's not a big deal...

Honestly, if you don't trust your manual handling skills to be sufficient to use them with passengers onboard you shouldn't be in the front at all.

There is nothing dangerous about handflying in itself!

Hand flying skills must be maintained at all times. Relying on automation because you can't hand fly will just result in AF747 situations happening over and over when the automation trips off.

Most all of the aircraft I have flown have lost automation, anti skid, accurate navigation, radar, normal flaps and numerous other failures over 23,000 hrs. All easy to manage by hand flying and common sense.

Why depend on automation to fix all your problems now. It never worked in the past. Newer airplanes don't make them fool proof as stated in the first paragraph.

I've always wondered about that myself. If it's not safe to do with "fare paying passengers" behind me, it's not safe for me to do with the seats empty either.

Along those lines, what happens if it's a plane full of airline employees using their staff travel benefits? Since they don't pay fares, is it safe then?;)

Apologies for this slight thread drift but arent OVERRUNS the result of lack flight skills mixed with poor judgement?
One can only 'yahoo' overrun and a list of AMERICAN AIRLINES will pop up,worrying indeed..
Relying on automation is also true for not checking AUTO speed brake deployement along with poorly accomplished SOPs..(call out).

Turkish Airlines Pilot Competency
 

Can anyone share their opinions about Turkish Airlines safety and pilot competency? Last report from euronews stated that 13 former pilots described huge safety concerns.

It will be interesting to see airline mgmt comments on the NTSB review of Asiana SFO. 11 Dec.