SlipKid

I guess I'll stop complaining about how our VNAV doesn't, since it's job security!

ZapBrannigan

Yeah I could beat the guy who decided that the cheapest version of common VNAV was a good solution for this airplane vs geometric VNAV.

I'm sure it was the same guy who didn't spring for a fuel totalizer, or window shades, or printers, or ...


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SlipKid

No kidding. We should get premium pay for any RNAV arrival with more than one crossing restriction. Double pay if it's in a 300 and you're going to BWI, DEN or LAX.

Smooth at FL450

Same guy that designed the -300's seats

KPer

Totally agree. That's a double edged sword though. I'd wager a paycheck and a kiss from my sister that more people were killed by pilots screwing the pooch (in perfectly good airplanes) than were saved by the Sullys and Haynes of this world.

Regardless (or irregardless if you believe that's a word), no matter how advanced Skynet becomes, I just don't think completely pilotless planes will be a reality in the 121 world.

shoelu

I guess the same could be said of ship captains, train engineers and automobile drivers.

We operate one of the safest modes of transportation available. One can never remove all risk from an inherently dangerous endeavor, but commercial air travel has succeeded admirably. The only better alternative is staying home.

C130driver

Sure, the technology exists...but why? Who cares? What are these software engineering (I say that as a son of a career engineer) geeks trying to accomplish?

Don't Bullsh*t me with safety.

Money? Can you imagine the costs of implementation not to imagine the legal fees/ liability?

Technology/automation is great. Keep it coming, but for f$cks sake let's put
to rest the idea of robots as copilots or whatever garbage some socially awkward software nerd is dreaming up in his cubical. There is no safer alternative than keeping trained professionals in the cockpit for those few instances when things go south.

Besides, can you imagine sitting by yourself on a 12+ hour long haul? There is a lot to be said about having someone to talk about booze, guns, girls, Jesus, politics, whatever you want on those long hours of droning.



Pilotless planes in commercial aviation let alone carrying pax accomplishes nothing,

bay982

Incorrect on both accounts.

Boeing, Airbus, and NASA agree that it will be at least 10% cheaper to operate an autonomous aircraft than it will to operate a dual (or triple) manned-cockpit.

KPer is correct in thinking that autonomous aircraft will be safer. 80% of accidents involve pilot error, which will be removed. A pilotless aircraft will occasionally crash, but less often than a piloted one.

And

Sluggo_63

Or how about when this happens at gear retraction?



This is where I think people lose focus of the largest issue in my mind. We all know when "pilots screw the pooch." We also hear of the Sullys and Haynes who "saved the day" in an outstanding fashion. What people don't hear is the times that the human saved the day from malfunctioning technology that just ends up as a writeup in the maintenance log and a conversation at the bar about how "That was weird... never seen it do that before." How many time have one of us been sitting there and the autopilot disconnect for some unknown reason and we reach up, grab the yoke and reengage the automation. Or when the plane starts turning in a direction where it shouldn't, or when it misses an RNAV restriction, or... the list goes on and on. This is the issue (IMO). We hear about pilots screwing up on the news, but we don't hear about the pilots' intervention that ends up as just an anomaly.

How much is the cost to increase the infrastructure to enable single-pilot or autonomous aircraft. Every runway served by a passenger aircraft (and all alternates) a CAT III capable one. Redundant reliable data link service over the entire planet. No more "DATALINK LOST" messages in Asia or Africa. Ever. Aircraft which can reset circuit breakers, detect odors, "feel" something odd, hear a rumble...

And what other modes of failure will be introduced to replace "pilot error?"

hoover

I completely agree. There is a huge amount of data missing from when an accident or incident didn't happen cause the pilots broke the error chain. We don't send in ASAP or NASA forms when nothing happens.