I take no offense. And just like you said the toys are cool to have when you want them for some relief. All I was getting at is production cars can all but drive themselves already in 2013. The technology is already here, its just a matter of demand and implementation.

 

This article was written by a guy with a better way with words than some long time contributors to flying. Flying, like any other magazine, has a way of getting out of touch with what's really going on in aviation from time to time.

We've had engineers, surgeons and a 767 pilot that's part of the chosen generation. Martha is always entertaining to read because she's so full of life, but it's hard for me to relate to her.

Honestly, I'd like a regional pilot with a positive outlook on things to have a regular monthly column, and a salaried position with the magazine. I may not be as positive as this writer, but he's the face of what's really going on. I'd like to read more from this guy. Martha's breakthrough article was much the same, a contribution that recieved a lot of praise, and she was given a column shortly thereafter.

Maybe if we play advocate for this guy, he can get a column he deserves.

 

Again with the drone thing... It either MUST have AI or it MUST have a remote pilot via datalink; perhaps a little bit of both, but I cannot see one that does not ultimately rely on data linking for at least SOME functionality. That means a radio, with all of the associated issues. What if the aircraft flies into thick WX? We've all heard radios crap themselves in a TRW.

AI suitable for complete autonomy isn't available, won't be for a long time.

Imagine even a simple problem like a flap/slat issue. Combine that with a bit of nasty WX, or maybe an ill passenger, or ATC issues, and the decision tree is going to become very complex, very quickly.

It is easy to program a simple drone to go from A to B, and it works when everything works perfectly. It doesn't do so well when there are problems. A LOT of drones have gone down in the lat 15 years.

 

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I second that!

Wouldn't mind seeing a regular column that reflects our community. I still enjoy revisiting some of the late Len Morgan's great writings, his "Reflections of a Pilot" is a great collection of his best work from Flying, his writing's rank a close 2nd only to Ernest Gann.

While talking about aviation writers, just recently read Bill Eads, 'When Flying was Fun', and Kevin Garrion's 'CEO of the Cockpit'. Both were good reads from former line pilots.

If anyone else would like to share or suggest another good aviation read, I'm always on the prowl for another good book.

 

I thought it was a very honest and well written article. I always enjoy reading Les Abend's column as well. Nicely done, Sam.

 

I understand JungleBus' comments about the E175. The 170/175 was designed so that 500 hour, third world trained pilots don't kill themselves. It is by far, the easiest airplane that I have flown at a 121 or 135 airline!!!

 

FLYING magazine is a popular magazine that isn't just read by private pilots and kiddies with aspirations. It has a huge readership. This is precisely why your article was so damaging to the piloting profession, MY profession, which is already demeaned enough. We have enough misinformation spread over our profession, and then we have a "fellow aviator" decided to spread it some more. I can't tell you how many times I've had people say "well the autopilot just does everything anyways, doesn't it?" What you forgot is that after so many years, we have become so proficient that everyday operations are easy. Just like anything else. But you remember how easy it is to screw up when you go into recurrent. After hundreds of hand surgeries, I'm sure it's easy too. I once had a doctor explain that arthroscopic knee surgery is so easy it's like playing a video game! He'd done thousands of them. It became easy. And that's why he was worth what he charged. But telling me what he did kind of hurt the image of his skills. It was bad PR.

I spend a lot of time explaining to people that "autopilot" is a terrible word to describe the system. That it is NOT a pilot, it is solely a flight control manipulator that takes direct input from a PILOT, that I can command the damned thing to do whatever I want it to do, and it's sole reason for existence is to ease workload because we have so many other tasks to accomplish on any given flight, especially during the departure and arrival phases. I had one guy (a physician) at a friend's dinner party tell me he thought we just press an autopilot button and then sit back and let it do it's thing.

The biggest problem with aviation is that so many pilots have such poor PR skills and are so socially inept that they don't understand other people. Sometimes we don't understand the consequences of what we say. When you write an article about flying for an airline, you don't just have an opportunity to improve our image and fix some misconceptions, you have a duty to your peers not to do what you did. It's also a mark of maturity.

Telling the world through one of the most popular aviation magazines on the planet that our jobs can be condensed to being bored and autopilot and autothrottles is a perfect example of the social ineptitude that plagues this profession. Furthermore, it's not even TRUE! It's so far removed from the truth, that it's an insult to pilots all over the world. This kind of damage can't be easily fixed. And this sentiment is not only shared by a lot of people on this thread, I guarantee you that the majority of airline pilots who read this article will be thinking the same thing: "Oh GREAT".

You write it off as "self-effacement" in your reply...but remember that you were describing an entire profession to the world. You were an un-chosen and (obviously) unwitting representative of all of us in that article. You didn't just efface yourself. You effaced all of us.

Thanks, guy.

 

Wow. Can we get a little more melodramatic? Sam, want to borrow my .45? Jeez, give the guy a break. It wasn't THAT bad.

 

I think you're right. I was harsh in my response. But really, I'm just tired of all the B.S. I have people I've known for years tell me that airplanes "land themselves too right?" I'm tired of explaining and correcting the misinformation from the media, from non-pilots who write about pilots, and now from pilots who write about pilots. It's especially frustrating after finishing a 4 day with mostly 9 hour layovers, with the Captain and I using our years of skill and experience (not relying on automation) to manage tasks, deviate around tornadic cells, and fly multiple approaches in poor weather with at least 1 day with multiple malfunctions.... to come home and read this.

I wrote and posted that in haste. The guy obviously didn't mean any harm.

 

I enjoyed the article. I'd ignore all the negative comments. It seems this board is mostly made up of people whining, complaining and being d*cks etc... Sometimes I can't tell if I'm reading APC forums or 4chan.