Alexb2000
En-Route
I thought I'd start by quoting Robert Frost accurately in hopes that this will be a productive, factually accurate, thread. Good luck right?
In my other recent thread about the SR22T (that has become a petty single vs. twin debate) I noticed something that I thought might be interesting to discuss the two different paths I see pilots taking. What I mean is some pilots have become monitors of the airplane, perhaps managers is a better word. While others tend to be manual operators only using technology as far as it helps them operate the machine directly.
I was trained as a stick and rudder airplane operator and I came face to face with the other perspective when I flew a Boeing 737NG sim in France. The French instructor was all about automation and we argued when my reaction to any adversity was to hand fly.
Flying the SR22T the other day with the salesman I noticed a similar difference, he managed the airplane I was always trying to fly it.
Before all you old school guys jump up and say, "children of the magenta line!" Let me give you a practical example.
We did a simulated engine out at night in the Cirrus. My first instinct in that scenario was... Hand fly, best glide, etc. I would have quickly pulled up the nearest and really focused on hitting best glide perfectly and holding a direct course to the nearest so as to lose the least amount of altitude possible. That's how I was trained. Once trimmed out and on heading and speed, I would have begun the checklist, etc. maybe a couple of minutes to accomplish. Once headed that way I would have been doing the mental math, 8:1 glide, altitude AGL, wind direction and speed, etc. if the calculation was close I would have kept flying it down hoping to make it. If I didn't I would have been looking for alternatives visually, etc.
The salesman never even considered hand flying. He pulled up the nearest, direct to, enter, enter, and set IAS mode to best glide. That took a few seconds then he began putting in the Vertical profile of the field to see if we would make it, another few seconds. Then as we slowed to best glide he could have done the checklist, maybe a minute. As soon as we hit best glide he looked at the Vpath indicator and knew we wouldn't make the field. He did no math, the airplane was perfectly on course and speed, he only had to do one thing at a time and he could concentrate.
Looking back, he did a far better job in this emergency scenario than I did because he leveraged technology.
So I talked this over with a freight dog instructor I know that hasn't had an autopilot to use flying turbines the last 5,000 hours. He said, that while he is obviously a big believer in hand flying skills, he deals with this issue a lot. He says EVERY pilot that comes to him for instruction or flies with him professionally thinks their hand flying skills are razor sharp, but 90% of the time they are not even close. He said that those flying for pleasure would most often be better off letting auto fly when it counts like on an approach.
I can see advantages to both sides and obviously the perfect answer is to be able to do it all. I'm just not sure that is possible for many pilots.
Fire away, but let's try and keep it civil. This board is sinking fast when every thread gets blown up on the first page.
In my other recent thread about the SR22T (that has become a petty single vs. twin debate) I noticed something that I thought might be interesting to discuss the two different paths I see pilots taking. What I mean is some pilots have become monitors of the airplane, perhaps managers is a better word. While others tend to be manual operators only using technology as far as it helps them operate the machine directly.
I was trained as a stick and rudder airplane operator and I came face to face with the other perspective when I flew a Boeing 737NG sim in France. The French instructor was all about automation and we argued when my reaction to any adversity was to hand fly.
Flying the SR22T the other day with the salesman I noticed a similar difference, he managed the airplane I was always trying to fly it.
Before all you old school guys jump up and say, "children of the magenta line!" Let me give you a practical example.
We did a simulated engine out at night in the Cirrus. My first instinct in that scenario was... Hand fly, best glide, etc. I would have quickly pulled up the nearest and really focused on hitting best glide perfectly and holding a direct course to the nearest so as to lose the least amount of altitude possible. That's how I was trained. Once trimmed out and on heading and speed, I would have begun the checklist, etc. maybe a couple of minutes to accomplish. Once headed that way I would have been doing the mental math, 8:1 glide, altitude AGL, wind direction and speed, etc. if the calculation was close I would have kept flying it down hoping to make it. If I didn't I would have been looking for alternatives visually, etc.
The salesman never even considered hand flying. He pulled up the nearest, direct to, enter, enter, and set IAS mode to best glide. That took a few seconds then he began putting in the Vertical profile of the field to see if we would make it, another few seconds. Then as we slowed to best glide he could have done the checklist, maybe a minute. As soon as we hit best glide he looked at the Vpath indicator and knew we wouldn't make the field. He did no math, the airplane was perfectly on course and speed, he only had to do one thing at a time and he could concentrate.
Looking back, he did a far better job in this emergency scenario than I did because he leveraged technology.
So I talked this over with a freight dog instructor I know that hasn't had an autopilot to use flying turbines the last 5,000 hours. He said, that while he is obviously a big believer in hand flying skills, he deals with this issue a lot. He says EVERY pilot that comes to him for instruction or flies with him professionally thinks their hand flying skills are razor sharp, but 90% of the time they are not even close. He said that those flying for pleasure would most often be better off letting auto fly when it counts like on an approach.
I can see advantages to both sides and obviously the perfect answer is to be able to do it all. I'm just not sure that is possible for many pilots.
Fire away, but let's try and keep it civil. This board is sinking fast when every thread gets blown up on the first page.