Proficiency: Getting along with George

It’s a simple and satisfying explanation, but it’s also wrong.

Take the classic example of poor stick-and-rudder training: the crash of Asiana Flight 214. In 2013, a professional crew flew a perfectly good Boeing into the ground at San Francisco International Airport under clear skies. Although the pilots certainly should have been able to make a landing without the benefit of an instrument landing system (ILS), which was out of service that day, you could easily blame the accident on poor automation management as well as manual flying mistakes. The pilots didn’t understand the autothrottle system, and had no idea it had kicked off.

This isn’t just an airline problem, either. I’ve flown with a number of general aviation pilots recently who are almost completely ignorant of the autopilot (AP) in their airplane. Many of these are otherwise fine pilots, but are sacrificing both comfort and safety in a misguided attempt to resist the avionics boogeyman. To a certain extent, this is understandable—the old private pilot written test and practical test standards all but ignored autopilot knowledge in favor of trivia about NDBs and obscure weather reports. As a result, most flight instructors don’t spend any time on it.

We can do better. A good first step would be to admit that the great debate about technology versus pilot skills is needlessly simplistic. Pilots can be great sticks and also understand how the autopilot works—it’s hardly an either/or choice. I don’t see many doctors swearing off MRIs in order to keep their old-school diagnostic skills sharper.

While we bemoan the negative effects of automation, we forget how valuable an autopilot can be in preventing accidents. Most notable is the potential to save a lot of VFR pilots’ lives if they should stray into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), still a major cause of fatal accidents. A GPS and an autopilot are not an excuse to fly dangerously, but if you’re properly trained, they can give you the time needed to come up with Plan B.

Somewhat counterintuitively, tools such as GPS and autopilot can also help prevent loss-of-control accidents. A fair number of these scenarios go wrong when the pilot gets overloaded. Hitting the AP button for a minute until things settle down could make a difference. That’s not to mention the power of newer autopilots, such as Garmin’s ESP feature, which include automatic envelope protection.

Instrument pilots can benefit from autopilots, too, as a tragic example from 2015 proves. The pilot, transitioning to a glass-cockpit Bonanza, got behind the airplane (or perhaps the avionics) on a hand-flown ILS and broke off the approach. Instead of turning on the autopilot, he attempted two more approaches, and crashed on his third attempt. He should have been able to fly an ILS by himself—no doubt. But did his lack of proficiency have to be a death sentence?

Most important, autopilots allow humans to specialize at what we do best: assembling information, keeping an eye on the big picture, and making decisions. These tasks cannot be offloaded to technology (at least not yet).

Cirrus Aircraft’s recent history has a powerful lesson for pilots when it comes to technology and training. The company’s whole-airplane parachute was demonized for years as a crutch, something that “real pilots” didn’t need. As a result, the parachute was a bit of an afterthought in training, and the Cirrus accident record was quite bad.

Over the past few years, the Cirrus community has embraced the parachute and integrated it into training from the very beginning. As a result of this shift in attitude, and some hard work on the part of instructors, the SR22 now has one of the best safety records in the GA fleet. More pulls, fewer fatal accidents. Regardless of your feelings about Cirrus, this is an incredible story.

The takeaway is that technology can improve safety, but only if it’s paired with good training and good habits. It’s time to stop ignoring the autopilot and start teaching pilots how to use it properly—beginning in primary training. That’s not lazy, it’s safe.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with pure stick-and-rudder flying. In fact, I love it. That’s why an essential part of autopilot training should be learning how to turn the thing off.

John Zimmermanis editor in chief of Air Facts and a vice president at Sporty’s Pilot Shop.