Are the blinkers coming off at last?

[Boac]

I'm in a state of shock. The UK CAA have noticed that a lot of pilots actually cannot really fly their aircraft without the use of autoplots, autothrottles, SOPs etc. etc. I cannot imagine what caused this train of thought..................

An extract from the latest 'safety notice'

Examples of flight crew training syllabus items which may assist in the avoidance of aircraft loss of control are given in the following list. These items support the enhancement of fundamental manual flying skills and awareness of aircraft trim changes, along with associated human factors considerations and automation intervention strategies.
Manual Flight with and without Flight Directors including manual and automatic trimming scenarios, where applicable:
•No autopilot, no autothrust/autothrottle and at different control laws, where applicable, and at different speeds (including slow flight) and altitudes
•Steep turns using 45 degrees bank, 180 degrees to 360 degrees left and right
•Turns with and without spoilers
•Procedural instrument flying and manoeuvring including instrument departures and arrivals and visual approaches
•Prevention of and recovery from stall events
•Thrust and pitch mode awareness in automatic, partial automatic and manual flight including pilot monitoring and crew coordination
•Automatic trim malfunctions, associated crew actions and implications of manual intervention and lack of awareness of the aircraft’s trim state. This should include strategies to recover from an out-of-trim condition after an automated system failure and various energy states at different altitudes
•The difficulty of manual trim intervention at high aerodynamic loads with applicable commercial air transport aircraft, particularly at lower altitudes and with consideration of crew coordination difficulties/techniques
•Pitch and power couple, in automatic and manual flight, with and without autothrust. Particular focus should be given to fly-by-wire aircraft, especially in the event of a control law downgrade
•Flight control law downgrades, if applicable
•Unreliable airspeed events and crew co-ordination
•Reduction in automation levels and subsequent reinstatement of automatic systems;
•Instrumentation failures and basic scan

Management and recovery from high energy and high workload manoeuvres may additionally be of benefit. For example:
•Go-arounds and rejected landings
•Visual manoeuvring exercises
•Recovery from abnormal manoeuvres;(e.g. TCAS or windshear events, etc.)

Related human factors issues pertaining to all aspects should be thoroughly considered, reviewed and embedded into flight crew training programmes.
For example:
•Situational awareness, particularly related to an aircraft’s dynamic situation and altitude, anticipation of a trimmed state and knowledge of systems and limitations
•Management of distractions during high workload situations
•Crew coordination, cooperation and communication
•Workload management
•Pilot Monitoring duties
•Awareness and management of startle fact

No sh!t, Sherlock - my flabber is completely ghasted. You never know, we old fogeys might have got away with climbing in manual or disconnecting the autopilot for a crisp visual approach without being 'called into the office'.....

[Slasher]

My flabberghastery on that subject occurred many years ago. Nothing new.

[Boac]

You misunderstood. Read it again, starting at the beginning?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I would add:
Development of self-awareness of human factors on performance, including fatigue, increasing workload, response to error, response to the unusual/unexpected, response to shock/fear (is that the "startle fact"?).
Perhaps Slash can chip in here, but given there isn't about to be a sudden change by the airlines in providing general handling sorties in the real aeroplanes, better/increased use could be made of the simulators. I suspect the sim profiles are too scripted also.
There obviously needs to be more manual flying, I suspect a lot more, on normal flights.
It's pretty clear to me that many modern aircrew are given an easy ride on some things, and perhaps a harder one on some others like long term fatigue and being p!ssed off.

[barkingmad]

Howzabout checking ALL pilots are capable of hand flying the maximum cruise weight 'frame at cruise altitude.
Since RVSM became the norm a myth regarding hand flying being prohibited became "fact".
The result is that proportionately more of the airline flight deck operatives have never experienced the "bungee cord control cables" effect of low IAS with high TAS at cruise levels.
I shudder to contemplate the phugoids which will be experienced by todays ill-experienced crew having to grab the beast and tame it whilst wondering what caused them to have to handfly at altitude in the first place.
This is not speculation as I witnessed it sometime before I had to hang up the headset.
And a session in the sim during initial type conversion will not alleviate this potential hazard lurking for a high proportion of any pilot's flight time.
Nice one boac!!
Tin hat on & secure......