Caveman
Grandpa
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2001
- Posts
- 1,580
A scan is a scan is a scan. Glass or steam gauges you still have to collect the info, interpret it and adjust accordingly. Glass gives me the data in a more concise format and the mapping displays greatly help with SA.
I don't see where a preference for glass suggests a lack of or a deteriation of piloting skills. Either you hand fly or you don't. Using the flight director doesn't count either. At CMR our 50 seat CRJ's don't have FADEC or VNAV. The vast majority of pilots I fly with all hand fly to 10000 without the flight director and a lot of them also hand fly the last few thousand feet to landing, again without the flight director. Ironically it has been my experience that the pilots most likely to auto up at 500 feet are the oldest, most senior pilots. Almost all the young folks like to hand fly at least some part of every leg.
I know a lot of our guys and gals think that FADEC and VNAV and all that would be good to have. I'm not so sure. Even though we are coupled up for a lot of the flight I believe that the requirement to stay involved with pitch/power, even in an auto NAV mode, helps to keep us pilots more in tune with the flight. I happen to enjoy it that way, but that's just me.
I don't see where a preference for glass suggests a lack of or a deteriation of piloting skills. Either you hand fly or you don't. Using the flight director doesn't count either. At CMR our 50 seat CRJ's don't have FADEC or VNAV. The vast majority of pilots I fly with all hand fly to 10000 without the flight director and a lot of them also hand fly the last few thousand feet to landing, again without the flight director. Ironically it has been my experience that the pilots most likely to auto up at 500 feet are the oldest, most senior pilots. Almost all the young folks like to hand fly at least some part of every leg.
I know a lot of our guys and gals think that FADEC and VNAV and all that would be good to have. I'm not so sure. Even though we are coupled up for a lot of the flight I believe that the requirement to stay involved with pitch/power, even in an auto NAV mode, helps to keep us pilots more in tune with the flight. I happen to enjoy it that way, but that's just me.