Would you take the plane?

[BOX OFFICE]

To all the replies saying no way, it's not safe, etc, wow!

How did airlines ever function before we had all this fancy technology to turn us into mindless In Touch reading zombies in the cockpit?!!!

Here's my take. This isn't taking a weekend romp in the Cessna with your mom and the weather exceeds your "personal minimums". You are an airline pilot. Your job is to safely get the passengers where they're going. If they don't have a spare, it's very likely they will cancel the flight should your captain refuse the airplane. Are you then doing your job to get those people where they paid to go? Let's be honest here. This isn't about safety, it's about inconvenience. Flying raw is work, and we spoiled by technology pilots don't like hard work.

If you truly feel it's unsafe because your skills in flying raw data aren't up to par, then you probably need to rethink your career decision or get yourself some remedial training!

 

[SLUF4]

Automation and other technology is there to help mitigate threats and make the flight safer. The airlines functioned before all of this-but was it as safe? Look at accident rates from back then and get back to me. I'm not saying it was unsafe in this case, but if the crew felt it is beyond their limits you have to trust them-that's another part of being a professional airline plot.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

To all the replies saying no way, it's not safe, etc, wow!

How did airlines ever function before we had all this fancy technology to turn us into mindless In Touch reading zombies in the cockpit?!!!

Here's my take. This isn't taking a weekend romp in the Cessna with your mom and the weather exceeds your "personal minimums". You are an airline pilot. Your job is to safely get the passengers where they're going. If they don't have a spare, it's very likely they will cancel the flight should your captain refuse the airplane. Are you then doing your job to get those people where they paid to go? Let's be honest here. This isn't about safety, it's about inconvenience. Flying raw is work, and we spoiled by technology pilots don't like hard work.

If you truly feel it's unsafe because your skills in flying raw data aren't up to par, then you probably need to rethink your career decision or get yourself some remedial training!

Asbestos was miracle material...yrs ago, too.

This is all about ego. I think your passengers would appreciate such a no-go decison. Whats legal is not always safe...blah blah blah.

 

[Freebrd]

This is all about ego. I think your passengers would appreciate such a no-go decison. Whats legal is not always safe...blah blah blah.

Ego? you crazy, and as far as passengers are concerned, yeah, sure the passenegrs would love getting cancelled 'cause weak sister is afraid to fly w/o an AP/FD. Gimme a break. No ego involved, just go fly the thing by hand and get the passengers where they wanna go.

 

[Whydoitry]

Flight directors have been around since at least the 60's, and at least one major does not allow crews to fly raw data ILS approaches when the wx is below VFR. I can fly raw data but as mentioned above it's an ego issue. We are paid to minimize risk and deliver people safely. Raw data to mins is not minimizing risk in my opinion. Get another airplane.

 

[bailout]

I'd go without the autopilot, but not without the flight director. You can all act like you're superpilots, but the facts state none of you are as good as the 'puter.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

Ego? you crazy, and as far as passengers are concerned, yeah, sure the passenegrs would love getting cancelled 'cause weak sister is afraid to fly w/o an AP/FD. Gimme a break. No ego involved, just go fly the thing by hand and get the passengers where they wanna go.

I'd wager that expressions like "weak sister" are drawn from ego. You're willing and I'm not.

Pull a PAX from said gate. Explain how things are usually done. Tell them about the weather and the lack of AP/FD and what that means. Impress upon them potential contingencies, workload, etc. etc.

They'll tell you the kids can wait to see grandma.

 

[777forever]

This was a purely hypothetical situation I came up with. Just wanted to get more experienced pilots opinions.

 

[30West]

Automation and other technology is there to help mitigate threats and make the flight safer. The airlines functioned before all of this-but was it as safe? Look at accident rates from back then and get back to me. I'm not saying it was unsafe in this case, but if the crew felt it is beyond their limits you have to trust them-that's another part of being a professional airline plot.

Actually Human Error as a percentage of accident causes has stayed pretty constant between 45-56% since the 1940s.
Technology hasn't necessarily mitigated it, all it has done is change the way we as humans manage to d##k things up in the cockpit. The big risk in this scenario is the way we are trained to fly. The emphasis is no longer on the basics, but more towards systems management. Raw data hand flying could be trained to extreme proficiency in newhire, upgrade and recurrent simulator curricula. But that adds to the training footprint, and most airlines simply don't want to pay the extra cost. Kind of scary really. All we can do is try to hand fly to the extent that company policy and workload allows, so that days like this don't put an airline crew out of the "comfort zone".

 

[Freebrd]

Now APU deferred another matter NO WAY Im going :beer: