Re Degrees of Flying Skills
George Robertson (GBRobertson_at_compuserve.com)
Sat, 29 Aug 1998 21:58:51 -0400
To All,
The article referred to appeared in Flight International a few weeks ago
and seemed to suggest that flying modern automated aeroplanes had become
some kind of rocket science that only degree holders can manage.
I have a university degree myself as do many of my colleagues, however the
problem as I see it is not one of pilot educational qualification so much
as the quality and adequacy of training materials and information provided
by the aircraft manufacturers.
Take the Boeing 757/767 on which I am current. I have to depend on the
Boeing produced operations manuals for systems knowledge. These are about
as user unfriendly as you could imagine. To find out about the automated
systems I have to look in the Navigation, Flight Instruments, and Automatic
Flight sections as well as in the Normal and Supplementary procedures. The
layout and typesetting is poor and the graphics are all monochrome line
drawings to describe a system that depends heavily on colour displays. If I
had spent 50 million dollars of my own money on one of their products, I
would expect better than this. I have singled out Boeing here as I fly
their aircraft, but I doubt if Airbus or the others are any better in this
respect.
The FMS fumblings which were a factor in the Cali accident, and the lack of
systems knowledge in the Birgenair accident at Puerto Plata are symptomatic
of a training problem quite separate from any HF issues. Poor systems
knowledge is more likely caused by lack of adequate information and
training opportunites, than the lack of ability of pilots to absorb it.
George Robertson
GBRobertson_at_compuserve.com