Show me where I said it takes stick and rudder skills to fly an airliner? I believe the point I made is that it DOESN'T take any. That is why I can't stand low timers that think they are awesome because they fly a sexy jet.

 

Thanks for clearing that up.

SkyHigh

 

Sky,

You said, "Most modern jets are fully automated and come complete with auto feather, rudder dampeners and flight directors."

Um, forgive my piston driven ignorance, but just what does auto feather do on a jet (turbo fan?)... maybe it ejects the core????

 

Yeah, and it's a yaw damper, silly. And really has noting to do with making your point that pilots don't fly airplanes. Do you know what a yaw damper does?

On my Capts IOE the checkairman had me turn off the autopilot, flight director, and auto throttles, and do a visual into Philly. That's one of the things an airline pilot needs to be able to do. You know, we can still go without the FMC, the autopilot, the flight director, a yaw damper, the autothrottles, ect. (just not all at the same time). You can't tell the Chief Pilot, I can't go cause the autopilots defered and I'm not comfortable with hand flying. That would be a laugh. I can hand fly the jet as well as you can hand fly your 150. The automation just makes it so I don't have to all the time.

"Put most of them in a Cessna 172 and they would kill themselves in short order."

Unsubstantiated gross exaggeration. I know this not to be true from personal experience.

 

Not when I am flying. The jet I fly also does not do a very good job of intercepting a localizer despite the fact that it was built in the 90s with a glass cockpit. I'm almost always hand flying by that point or earlier.

Like when my pitch trim had a runaway a notch up and then failed there last month, during rotation? Just like the sim buddy -- arms full forward holding the yoke down to keep it from pitching up and eventually stalling. You gonna train a monkey to do that maneuver and keep it +/- 100 feet for NYC departure 'cause there's inbound traffic right above you?

Either this is written sarcastically, or you finally have lost the last shred of credibility that was left in your screename in my eyes.

 

At one time I was a flight istrutor in ANC and commonly was approached by 747, DC-10, smaller airline and military pilots for a check out in the Cessna 172.

It had been many years since these guys had flown a small plane and they wanted to be able to rent a plane to take themselves on scenic flights.

Most were worse than if the had no prior flight experience at all. Not a singe one of them was able to check out in one flight. Most gave up and the few who did get a sign off had problems.

One DC-10 captain looked at the ANC sectional with amazement. He claimed that he had never seen a VFR chart before and previously didn't know they even had such a silly thing. He was ex-military and claimed to only have 5 hours in a piston plane.

In addition I also worked at several air taxis where retired ex-airline pilots attempted to work as line pilots and quickly gave up much to the relief of everyone else.

I have a friend who is a DC-10 captain and even though he works a full schedule finds it difficult to stay current with 3 landings within 90 days due to the long haul nature of his job. Skills fade over time under those conditions.

You do not need to actually have piloting skills to be an airline pilot.

SkyHigh

 

Oh yea!! It is called the Yaw dampener and I remember that if your plane has one that your feet stay firmly planted on the floor. In fact after the NYC Airbus crash we were all reminded that the rudder did not need any inputs from us unless there was an engine failure... Feet on the floor...

Skyhigh

 

Pilots need more than just enough money to be able to afford to breath and exist.

They require wages sufficient enough to be able to fund a middle class lifestyle, self funded retirement, pay off school loans and save for offspring college costs. Anything less is irresponsible and a vote cast towards lowering wages in the future.

We all love to fly and that seems to serve as most of the compensation pilots get these days.

If your career doesnt pass the stupid test then it isn't a real job but a hobby that covers some of its own costs.


SkyHigh

 

Again, completely wrong.

The transport category jet that I fly needs to be handflown following an engine failure and everything gets trimmed manually. This is a jet of the 1990s.

 

I though I mentioned that you need to use the rudder during an engine failure? Aside from that it is mostly feet on the floor. Nothing like flying a Cessna 185 or even a 150 for that matter.

SkyHigh