FORMER OGR CEO - RETIRED posted:One only needs to watch a few episodes of “Air Disasters” to see how this has affected even experienced airline pilots. Landing short of the runway at San Francisco, or riding a stalled aircraft from FL 330 (33,000 feet) all the way to a crash in the ocean are two PERFECT examples of highly paid commercial pilots who simply did not know how to fly an aircraft.The King Air has an auto-pilot, and I use it a lot in cruise. But “Otto” and I have an agreement when it comes to flying instrument approaches. We “share“ those duties. He flies one and I fly one. That way I know that Otto can still fly an IFR approach and it makes sure I can still fly one, too.
We already have a generation of young engineers who don’t understand how to properly use the air brakes, don’t understand how to control slack and really have no understanding of train dynamics because they haven’t been taught about those things. They have only been taught what they need to know to get a train over the road with everything working properly. Let something go wrong and they are totally lost and unable to do any creative problem solving because they don’t even know what the problem is, let alone how to solve it.
Automation is not always a good thing.
I'm fascinated by some of the episodes of Air Disasters, it boggles the mind how some of these crashes happen!
FORMER OGR CEO - RETIRED posted:The King Air has an auto-pilot, and I use it a lot in cruise. But “Otto” and I have an agreement when it comes to flying instrument approaches. We “share“ those duties. He flies one and I fly one. That way I know that Otto can still fly an IFR approach and it makes sure I can still fly one, too.
Good idea, that is smart flying. Too bad it's not more widely practiced.
FORMER OGR CEO - RETIRED posted:We already have a generation of young engineers who don’t understand how to properly use the air brakes, don’t understand how to control slack and really have no understanding of train dynamics because they haven’t been taught about those things. They have only been taught what they need to know to get a train over the road with everything working properly. Let something go wrong and they are totally lost and unable to do any creative problem solving because they don’t even know what the problem is, let alone how to solve it.Automation is not always a good thing.
A bit worrisome, perhaps why there's so many train accidents nowadays.
FORMER OGR CEO - RETIRED posted:Automation is not always a good thing.
Yep! 
