As time goes by it will become increasingly difficult to deny the obvious.

Last Wednesday Bill Voss, the president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation made the following comments on Nightline:

(Warning: These statements have been taken out of context, but it is still accurate for my purposes.)

"in modern aviation, these planes almost fly themselves. Voss said that on any given flight, pilots are manually flying the plane for only three minutes -- one minute and 30 seconds each for take-off and landing."

"We moving towards automated operations where the pilot isn't even permitted to fly," Voss said. "That means the first time in your career you will ever feel what an aircraft feels like at 35,000 feet is when it's handed to you broken."

Another note worthy comment from the story.

"Airbus is proud of the fact, they like to say that their plane is 'pilot-proof,'" said aviation lawyer James Healy Pratt.

The computer flies the plane and we are moving into a time when pilots will only hand fly in the sim. The article is about the Airfrance accident but it is the comments being made by industry professionals regarding automation in the flight deck that I find the most interesting.

I believe that in the near future pilots will fear the thought of disengaging the autopilot and actually hand flying the plane with live passengers in back. It will be an emergency procedure. Like it or not that is the future of aviation. Some would say that it is already here.

Skyhigh

Air France Flight 447 Investigation: Pilots Not Properly Trained to Fly the Airbus A330? - ABC News

 

" Skynet was a computer system developed for the U.S. military by the defense firm Cyberdyne Systems. Skynet was first built as a "Global Digital Defense Network" and given command over all computerized military hardware and systems, including the B-2 stealth bomber fleet and America's entire nuclear weapons arsenal. The strategy behind Skynet's creation was to remove the possibility of human error and slow reaction time to guarantee a fast, efficient response to enemy attack.

In the Terminator storyline, Skynet was originally installed by the military to control the national arsenal on August 4, 1997, at which time it began learning at a geometric rate. On August 29, it gained self-awareness[1], and the panicking operators, realizing the extent of its abilities, tried to deactivate it. Skynet perceived this as an attack and came to the conclusion that all of humanity would attempt to destroy it. To defend itself, Skynet launched nuclear missiles under its command at Russia, which responded with a nuclear counter-attack against the U.S. and its allies. As a result of the nuclear exchange, over three billion people were killed in an event that came to be known as Judgment Day.

Following its initial attack, Skynet used its remaining resources to gather a slave labor force from surviving humans. These slaves constructed the first of its automated factories, which acted as the base for its agenda. Within decades, Skynet had established a global presence and used its mechanized units to track down, collect, and dispose of human survivors."
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As you can clearly see Mr. Anderson, we have been watching you for quite some time. Automation is dangerous!


On a serious note, I think you would be very hard pressed to argue against automation, on the whole it has done nothing but increase the safety of world fleets.
Training can always be improved though.

 

 

I'm glad I was not standing in the marshes around Salisbury Maryland to be offed by that errant GlobalHawk earlier today. Downright bad automation, if you ask me!

 

I'll have to be watching for that move to escape from a head lock in the next UFC PPV!
I hand flew today. It was great!

USMCFLYR

 

Pax river has had a whole bunch of aluminum hit the ground around it over the years, most of it by non-automated aerospace vehicles.

 

"Occasionally it needs to be restated but I am a pilot after all. If Alaska Airlines were to call I would have to go. Working for that company is my dream."
--SkyHigh

This recent quote is also accurate for our purposes. Is it a cry for help? "Stop me before I fly airliners again!"

 

I heard Alaska has some of those evil automated aircraft, I guess that kills that idea.

 

I am just passing the news along. I realize that most of you here are retired or are about to be but there are young people here who are investing a small fortune in a dream that is long gone. They actually believe that pilots still fly the planes.

I would be more worried about the impending Chinese take over of global aviation. You guys are really going to hate that.

They have flight schools in development in China that will train thousands of communist raised pilots at a time. Those guys don't care of they ever touch the controls. Managements ultimate dream pilot; Obedient, grateful and silent automatons.

Automation of the aircraft and flight deck at a fraction of what pilots cost today.

Q&A: James Fallows on China, Aviation and Ambition - China Real Time Report - WSJ


Skyhigh

 

In regards to the Alaska Airlines comments:

Dreams do not not have to make sense but reality does.

Skyhigh