Originally Posted by CrazyEight

Why would some of us take or even consider retiring off the 787 vs the 350?

There are essentially two kinds of professionals in the cockpit: systems managers and pilots. Are there both? Sure, not as many as you think. Its like finding someone that is kind and nice, they do exist on the edges.

The Airbus philosophy leans heavily toward managing systems—pressing, confirming, and hearing things three times. That’s a very different muscle memory from earlier generations of airplanes, where kicking off the AP/FD and looking out the window to land the jet was not only acceptable, it was expected. That’s not a slam—just a philosophical difference.

For those of us who came up flying turboprops, classic Boeings, McDonnells, airplanes without FMS, doing five legs a day, it’s a noticeable shift. I remember reading a pubs change explaining why runway sidesteps or S-turns were now “unsafe,” and a bunch of us just looked at each other. Wait… are we hiring pilots who can’t look out a window, identify runway numbers, and land past them? To be fair, we did have a couple of newer types land a 767 on a taxiway, so maybe the industry’s recalibration didn’t come from nowhere.

Some of us don’t mind going out the same way we came in: the pilot flies the jet. Sure, there are software algorithms humming along in the background—but they stay in the background. One airplane still feels like an airplane; the other is an drone that takes 45 minutes to program on the ground, while moving at light speed toward reduced crew staffing.

Just something to think about before we hug that transition too tightly. The automation won’t ask for a jumpseat when things get weird.