To Automate or NOT Automate the vexing question

[Maurice_King]

I have for a long time maintained that far too many pilots get themselves in the shit so to speak because they over think and over use tech available to them instead of  ' and I borrow a quote from a movie here .... "Just Fly The Damn Plane"  .... 

 

 

Watch this and tell me I'm wrong 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZDjkIjuHGE

 

[Taph]

Nice post thanks

[RJ]

Great vid!

[Mickey]

Hi Maurice,

One question first, are you in the airline business and/or are you an active real world pilot? I am an active real world pilot (Cpt) rated on Embraer 190/195 and a Trainer for Human Factors.

Just to make sure we talk on the same or on a different level about this topic. Its 16 years old but still a subject to talk about!

[Maurice_King]

Yes Mickey I am a pilot although not commercial I am still actively when I can fly.

After watching this Video and I know it is a bit dated, I started to wonder about the modern day effect of becoming work saturated and instead of say doing what the ATC wants and staying aware they go head down programming the FMC in this example which required verification and corroboration, and more importantly TIME and that is some instances as you would know is not available where to maintain separation things need to be done NOW.

 

What I mean is if you the pilot are required by ATC to change your course because of a weather shift or some other need to alter course or arrival track that the pilots should not rely on automation but fly the Aircraft and then when established on it's new desired course than program the FMC or other systems to then take over.
 

The end result of this video was and at least for me , it made me think about the possibility that the work load on pilots is often generated by themselves having to follow policy, 

 

I like this video simply because it highlights the problems generated by the workload of having to reprogram and or change flight paths based on information that in some cases you have no control over the accuracy of.

  

[Mickey]

Hi Maurice,

 

sorry for posting that late, i was on vacation The video is great and its still valid nowadays. Despite things have changed in the last 16 years on pilots and ATC side. I would say that 95% of airports we fly in and out today use RNAV procedures. These procedures are built in the FMC databases (wich still can be or sometimes actually are faulty) But i agree to the fact "fly the aircraft first" thats a holy rule or the 11. commandment of the bible the church didnt taught us in the first place. 

 

I started my career on a CRJ 100. No autothrottle one autopilot one HUGS (CPT side installed for AT III ops) 2 FMS installed. I was trained the way "use max level of automation" to keep SA but FLY THE F*** PLANE FIRST. 

 

8 weeks ago i got my conversion on E190. 1 autopilot autothrottle 2 FMS dual HUGS (aprooved for all phases of flight) lots of protection like over and low speed protection EGPWS RAAS etc. Still the valid the 11. commandmet if anything goes wrong you know it already But according procedure stay heads up on the Head Up Guidance System!!! Thats me with 14 years of flying experience but what about the playstation and PC gamer generation comming up ? They are dam fast in reprogramming the crapy FMC of the E190.

 

While i make klick klick klick they are done with reprogramming

 

Anyway times technology and procedures will continue to change in the upcomming years and sadly to say planes will drop out of the sky and plug themselves into the ground across the planet (i like that expression cause we are just human and we have the human error hard coded programmed in our DNS. Wether we fly the f*** plane or beiing caught in the automation. 

 

One thing we can do is beiing aware of the human error and to manage that to keep the sky a and the world a save place.