As if there weren’t enough reasons to hate social media.

First of all, no, you do *not* fly an aircraft by “feel.” You fly it using your intelligence, reason and training. When the instruments say your attitude is X and you “feel” that it’s Y, following your feelings rather than the instruments is likely to get you killed, especially in IFR.

Second, using an autopilot is not just “punching in numbers.” While you’re not using the same “stick” skills¹ as when hand-flying, you still need to understand just as well and use the same principles of flight and how you orient and guide your aircraft; bad autopilot inputs will crash you just as well as bad stick inputs. And in fact flying with an autopilot requires significantly *more* knowledge than stick-only flying because you need to understand how the autopilot will fly the aircraft when you enter your commands.

I find really annoying that people who would be utterly stumped by something as simple as having to choose between FLS (IAS) mode and VS mode when commanding a descent think that an autopilot, rather than the pilot, is flying the aircraft. That’s like saying cruise-control is driving a car, rather than the driver.

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¹ I do agree with others that stick skills should be maintained. But they’re not the be-all and end-all of flight; and intelligent use of automation makes flight significantly safer.

YOU have learned how to know and FEEL exactly how a plane flies.

Others have learned how to punch in numbers.

A comment on the instagrammers would be interesting, but perhaps not suitable? 😉

Your concerns aren’t unwarranted. However, you should watch the “Mentour Pilot” documentary on the Air France crash, on YouTube. It’s the best examination of the accident I’ve seen. And it’ll show you how complicated and confusing that scenario was. Blaming it on a lack of basic flying skills is really oversimplifying it.

Are we seeing a growth of “flight simulator” pilots getting jobs now? I remember with horrow the Air France accident (outside Brazil) where the pilots were the cause of the crash. They simply didnt understand the basics of flying.

These days it seems like posting an Instagram photo from the cockpit is the most important thing. Yieks.

Thoughts?

Now there is a NPRM on the books which can turn around all the 135 horrors by 1) prohibiting retaliation by management for pilots reporting safety concerns 2) requiring all pilots practice CRM, SA (display those EFB’s darn it) and Threat Management. All standard fare in a 121 cockpit.Standardize those briefs and put all pilots in the company Paper tiger to learn them. 3. Add an exercise looking up a “NoGO” item right after engine start in the MEL. 4. Those nutty corp jet checklists -as many as 3 or 4 under 10,000. Egads.
Just hire retired 121 pilots as Dir of Safety for 135 Ops.

It should be One Level of Safety for every pilot flying for hire in this country – but esp 135 Charters, and Pt 91 ops. Also the hostility for Airline guys is everywhere – I think ALPA once referred to it as “Anti Authority
Personalities”.