CoolP, my take is that flying a plane is more art than science.

If all the fancy stuff is working - fine. But when the fertilizer hits the fan and all the funny, sissy, glass thingies go T.U. maybe a little basic old school stuff would save the day. Case in point - the Air France Airbus that was lost off the coast of South America. I know that all hell broke loose and things were not making a lot of sense, but if the pilot just placed the nose on the horizon and set a power setting like cruise, the plane would most likely fly. In the 707 and 727 we had a - LOSS OF RADOME procedure where the airspeed would be unreliable. Attitude and power setting were the primary tools to keep the greasy side down. It worked in the 707 and it works in a Cub. When the glassily stuff came on the scene the little procedure went bye bye. Too bad, it may well have saved that flight.

As for the lean training, it's all about money! Putting a pilot in class cost money. If you can put the class on slim-fast and save a week or two you have saved a bundle. I wonder just how much the bean counters really save since most airlines are self insured for part of the liability in a crash. One bad crash could more than wipe out the savings of a week or two less training. In the sixties, going to a different plane took several months of training. You would have three or four weeks of classroom, then maybe a week in the procedure trainer and maybe two weeks in the simulator followed by some IOE line training and then a check ride. When the glass-e planes came along the class was clipped to seven or eight days and then maybe a few sessions in the trainer and a couple of days in the sim and before you knew it you were solo... wow!

No more teaching systems, because there was nothing you could do to fix the darn thing anyway. The glass was pretty simple - when it worked. And even though the cockpit now had only you and the other pilot you didn't need to know how it works, just how to use it. No more nuts and bolts. If you asked in class - "How does it work" - you were told, "Just Fine!" So little by little the pilot is relegated to a button pusher. Even the plane calls you a "retard" on landing, as if you never flew a plane before. What an insult!

Now I don't think you need to know how to build the plane in order to fly it, but knowing what is going on couldn't hurt!  :-[

Just my opinion...

Want to try explaining the northerly turning error? ::)