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Aircraft now so automated pilots have forgotten how to fly
El Reg recently published an article [theregister.co.uk] that points out the fact that airline pilots are no longer "stick-and-rudder" men, meaning they have trouble flying their aircraft when the automation fails [wikipedia.org] or when something else goes wrong [wikipedia.org]:
The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) is failing to ensure that American pilots can manually fly passenger jets if the automated systems controlling the aircraft fail, a report by the US Department of Transportation Inspector General has found. [...]
Airlines are supposed to make sure that pilots get enough training and stick time to ensure they are fully proficient in manual operations – both in flying the aircraft and in monitoring instruments to make sure the computer is doing its job.
But the report found that only 5 of 19 simulator training plans had any aspect of pilot instrument monitoring built in, and rules about how much manual flying experience a pilot is required to have won't be in place until 2019 at the earliest.
On a somewhat related note, Ars has published an interesting article [arstechnica.com] about planes that were flown by men who really did know how to fly, about those rare few who not only can afford to buy and restore old American and Soviet fighter jets but occasionally fly them when they can get the parts.
Based upon the content of these articles, if I got on a commercial airliner today, I'd want the retired fighter jockey up front instead the guy who only knows how to fly a $400 million video game.
