Obviously the agenda is to draw attention to the issue and the book, which is why I took on the task. Sadly, too many have read the Vanity Fair article and perhaps even the report but let their own bias sneak into their view. It is all too easy to look at a situation in hindsight and see exactly where someone made the wrong choice. However, things are a lot tougher when in a situation.

Would it surprise the readers here the front-seaters of AF447 had sailplane and aerobatic experience? That they came from aviation families?

One thing that really came to light through some surveys discussed in the book was the gaping holes in average pilot knowledge out there. I addressed some of it in a previous blog article, but it is much worse than I imagined even for pilots with a lot of experience, military and civilian, and major airlines.

I fully agree with some of the points above on proficiency, but it is even worse than that. Of course, finding someone to admit they're not proficient, good luck with that!

Too many excuses being made for the abinitio 2900 hr pilot in the right seat and the management guy flying his one trip in 3 months in the left seat. Trace his 2900 hrs in terms of fleet (330 and 320) and the legs he's done and it's quickly clear most of his time was spent at cruise babysitting the autopilot. Very little actual stick time. Sully had glider time and he said it had absolutely nothing to do with his outcome at the Hudson, and that he was surprised the media was running with the idea. I get that you have a book to sell, your signature is a link to your book and website so it's only reasonable that you're gonna try and market it.

It is not so simple. How much stick time does ANYONE get above RVSM, or even above 20k? When was the last time YOU hand flew a jet at the cruise altitudes? Now what about with degraded flight controls? At night? In the weather? How much do you really know about how your airplane performs in a real stall at cruise altitude? How much do you really know about simulator modeling of dynamic events? How much do you really understand your aircraft systems? Weather radar? Reflectivity and VIL of convective weather in different regions of the world (does it vary?).

I wrote this book to address all of these issues and draw attention to them, and explain them. It is written such that even those without a technical background (cough, management, cough) can get it, hopefully.

Remember that old joke of glass airplane pilots, a new pilot says "what's it doing now?" while a senior pilot says "it does that sometimes..."? I submit to you that both cases are indicative of inadequate training.

On your last line, yep!

I understand you have a product to sell, I don't think you're gonna sell much in this thread

At many foreign airlines they actually have a hard written rule like no handflying above 10k (for example). There's no excuse for pulling the stick back and holding it there in the cruise flight levels.

Ha, my larger concern is preventing an accident.

That second part is not as widely spread as you might think. Recall that many U.S. carriers had rules like that until very recently, or at least strong recommendations. Now they recommend hand-flying, but how much is really done outside of climbing to maybe 10,000' or sometime late in the approach prior to landing? Seriously.

While aerodynamics is much more complicated at the higher FLs, the basics of pitch and power do not change much. When the aircraft is in a stall, you don't yank back on the yoke/stick. Then again neither the FO or the relief captain had any clue they were stalled which a simple basic crosscheck would have helped.

IMS, he flew night freight in Beech 18s back when Men were Men, and since he was paid for it, I think it was in fact professional in nature. I agree with you that he is an excellent journalist, I disagree that he has an axe to grind. Frankly, I thought the article was excellent in that it got fairly deep in the systems logic but remained accessible to a layman.

Tell me what you believe a stall feels like from the cockpit of an A330 at FL380? Serious question, I am curious as to what you would expect to see?

I fly to hand fly to 290 and arrivals when the conditions allow i.e. not in SoCal etc. I used to hand fly to final cruise altitude before RVSM, yes at night and in weather. I want to keep my skills in case the the autopilot is inop or malfunctions.

Full, deep stall like these guys were in? Buffet, nose hunting, nose up attitude, low airspeed and most important of all, a high, high sink rate.