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Old 2 Apr 2016, 08:29 (Ref:3629467)   #57
Mike Harte
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Having moved the debate to aircraft, there are a few misconceptions. For example, the Typhoon Eurofighter is only really able to be flown straight and level without it's computer systems; the aircraft is notionally not aerodynamic, and it requires almost constant positioning refinements that the computer system provides.

You need to be careful when you say that any pilot can fly any plane, especially if you then add that they can do so when the automated system has failed. I have a lapsed pilot's licence, and even when it was current, I wouldn't have had a clue how to keep a Boeing 727 in the air, let alone a 747. Although commercial pilots now do virtually all their training in simulators, even in days gone by a 2 engine pilot would sit in the 2nd seat when upgrading to a 4 engine plane until they had shown sufficient skill in flying the plane. Even nowadays, an experienced captain moving from flying a Boeing 737 to an Airbus 320 will be required to undertake many hours in the simulator before he would be allowed in the cockpit, and even then he would need to fly in the right hand seat for quite a few flights before moving across the console.

And a word of caution about the interaction between on-board flight computers and pilots. Many of the recent aircraft losses have been caused by pilots trying to ignore what the instruments are telling them, and over-riding the autopilot. Virtually every fatal accident in recent years has been due mainly through human error, and my own opinion, for what little it's worth, is that pilots have been deskilled. They have become so reliant on instruments and computing power that they have lost some of the ability to be able to rely on their own ability. Although simulators are wonderful things, a trainee pilot can walk out of every crash landing that he makes; if he was in an actual plane, he wouldn't have that luxury.

Finally, thank goodness you say, certain aircraft at certain airfields have the ability to taxi to the runway, take off, climb, level off, descend, land and taxi to it's parking slot without any input from the pilot except for a few pushes on computer-like buttons. That is the theory; in practice, those airfields, known as Category IIIc, are awaiting certification. Most major airports will be Category IIIb which permits aircraft to take off and land in very poor conditions, and some aircraft and pilots are certified to land and permit the autopilot to take the aircraft off the runway onto the designated taxiway, at which point the pilot has to take manual control. But that will change shortly, I am sure; after all, BA has been able to use the current system for decades, even if other airlines are only now catching up.
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