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Pilots, not computers, should fly planes
As the National Transportation Safety Board begins public hearings on Wednesday into the crash of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 in San Francisco in July, one question is certain to keep popping up: Have pilots become too dependent on computer systems to fly their airplanes? The simple answer is yes. (www.cnn.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
I don't think it we need an extreme on one side or the other. Commercial pilots should be required to train on both the use of FMS as well as stick and rudder. I think it is a mistake to simply increase the hours required for a pilot. The FAA required recurrent training for MU2s to fix a safety problem. The same should be done for the rest of the industry. It isn't hours that make a pilot safe, it's the understanding of every aspect of the profession. It's not the hours but what you do with the hours. Airline pilots should be required to train proficiency in not only FMS approaches but also hand flown approaches. Required upset or acrobatic training in a turbine aircraft in addition to simulator training on the aircraft systems should be the standard.
Well Said!! Couldn't agree more!! Automation is a tool, not a crutch.
Tool ! Dependence on 'tool', all the time ? Inability to fly without the 'tool' ?
I guess that's the main issue !
Aviation, as you guys have taught me, is NECESSARILY a combination of IFR and VFR, without defining which comes when. Right ?
Thus, in either situation, the pilot is paramount. Not the tool/crutch, call it by any name. Crutch connotes helplessness and tool implies convenience, which slowly becomes inseparable from the process involved.
Right ?
I guess that's the main issue !
Aviation, as you guys have taught me, is NECESSARILY a combination of IFR and VFR, without defining which comes when. Right ?
Thus, in either situation, the pilot is paramount. Not the tool/crutch, call it by any name. Crutch connotes helplessness and tool implies convenience, which slowly becomes inseparable from the process involved.
Right ?
You're getting there. When the tool becomes the accepted way of life, rather than a helper, that is where the problems start coming in.
Use of good tools such as FMS, A/P, and so forth are great... But keep in mind that if you lean on a tool to hard it will break when you least expect it. But in some cases people also pick up the wrong tool. Instead of using their tools saying too low and too slow, they were using their visual tools (AKA EYE's) watch a visual approach and not paying quite as much attention as they should have been.
Great comment and well stated.
Great comment and well stated.
I have been saying that for along time as has been many of us... Pilots need a lot more hands on time. When pilots call me with a problem and I have to defer the A/P you would be surprised how many try to get us to take another route... Way too dependent on the automation.