Originally Posted by
tsquare
No... what you are displaying is a high level of immaturity. I absolutely hated learning to draw the electrical schematic system on the 727. Hated it. Felt exactly the same way as you are now advocating as a matter of fact. Now... 20 years later, I see there was a purpose in it. You are a classic end user. As long as it works, you're good to go. If there's a problem, somebody (hopefully) has figured out what to do, and will tell you. That is quite sad actually... and someday you might understand. It has nothing to do with going back to the glory days of the 60s or anything like that. It has to do with knowing your airplane. We are losing that part of our professionalism. Reading a checklist might be fine for you, but I prefer knowing more about my craft. An FO can be replaced with a fresh out of a six week "crash course" on reading English if things continue down the road you seem to adore. Fine with me, YOU are gonna have to keep your eye on 'em so that they don't throw down the gear mid flight, or shut down an engine or two.... because , hey, "there's a checklist for restarting the engine.. I saw it in the sim"....
Oh, and I don't have any kids....
I enjoy learning the nuances of an airplane, I do, but I fully understand why that's being dropped.
a) We fly, they fix. Knowing the guts of the jet doesn't help us fly the jet better and knowing the aircraft like a mechanic does you little good if you're not authorized to do maintenance. Write it up, let them deal with it and more importantly track it.
b) If I get a message GEN OFF, I start the APU and run the QRH. The schematic doesn't matter much at that moment. I say stick to the procedures developed by the people who designed it and tested it, that's how I see it. You're not going to save the day because of your personal expert knowledge about the nuances of the aircraft; but your expert proficiency, discipline and experience would save the day.
If I've got a big problem, I do as helicopter pilots do and get it on the ground.
c) My only caveat to b is corporate aviation and international flying. In corporate aviation you don't have the maintenance support of an airline, you're on your own but even then it's not about learning how a molecule flows through the pneumatic system. It's about FAA compliance, warranties, TASKs, 8130s, compounding MEL items, etc. And flying the 767 over the Atlantic, okay, might want to review living with problems for a prolonged period of time.
I will say a pilot should be
better exposed to schematics and systems in a better manner then here's a book or a 700 power point slide, but not memorize it. I have thoroughly enjoyed having a simulator program for at home use on the 717. I think money should be invested in that kind of stuff. I also like seeing a computerized schematic of an airplane (like FlightSafety produces for some of their corporate aircraft). Something about seeing it work and manipulating it or throwing in failures really helps you understand the jet better than if you know what the elbow is connected to the T/R and so on.