Originally Posted by
ExperimentalAB
Safety statistics have improved greatly over the last thirty years because of technology like EGPWS, TCAS, LLWS Alerting, etc...NOT because we now have a FD crutch...is it now just a race to the bottom? Just because the Pilots of today CAN rely on new, fancy equipment, doesn't necessarily mean we should. I think doing so is lazy, irresponsible, and un-professional.
You can go ahead and and forget that you are actually a Pilot ::gasp:: I will continue trying to be the best Pilot I can be - managing a/c systems and components, hand-flying, SA, the entire package...
You sound a lot like an old crusty captain I flew with who yelled at me for putting a point in the FMS along our route for descent planning purposes going into Mexico (they can be very stingy with the descents in Mexico sometimes). I believe his exact words were "don't touch that damn box, its gonna fly us into a mountain!".
Why don't you try your little anti-autopilot/FD BS when you're headed into a mountainous terrain at night with bad weather, a worthless Mexican air traffic "controller" and something broke on the airplane, like the flaps. Do the words "task saturation" mean anything to you? I don't care if you ARE Chuck F*ing Yeager, I think I'd slap you, call you the little b!tch you are and turn on the dang autopilot before you kill us all trying to prove what a "real" pilot is.