Long hours flying under computer control may have dulled the skills of airline flight crews, according to a U.S. advisory board that recommends more manual flight time for pilots.
"They're becoming very dependent upon using the autopilot, the auto-throttles, the auto flight system, the computers, to actually operate the entire flight," said Kevin Hiatt, a former airline pilot who sat on that board.
"What happens is, you don't actually hand-fly or manipulate the controls, whether it's a control yoke or a sidestick controller," Hiatt said. "Therefore, your computer skills get greatly enhanced, but your flying skills start to get rusty."
The panel recommended that airlines provide guidance for manual flights in their operating manuals to encourage more actual flying by pilots. But experts say the problem may get worse because of the way younger pilots are trained.
"When you bring on a new pilot who has not been through some of the things that some of the older guys have, they've never flown an airplane that had anything but some computer activity on it," retired commercial pilot Jim Tilmon said. "They don't understand what to do necessarily when something goes wrong with their computer."
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Source: CNN
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