"Latest cockpits"....Yep...buddy of mine
at UAL currently LGA F/O on 320. Was
IAW 777 F/O previously...jumpseated
with him to UK and back a couple of times.
Both cockpits....latest stuff....beautiful!!
"...these kids today have it tough"
well....maybe they do but in a different
way than you and I.
It's like calculators for kids....they
never learn the manual basics of adding,
subtracting, etc. or discard same in favor
of automation before the manual basics
have a chance to really "sink in".
Fr'instance....
Remember the American 757 which crashed
in South America during a night approach
wherein the crew accepted a change of
approach at the last moment in order to
make a more direct and less time consuming straight in to a runway more
in line with their heading to the airport,
instead of doing the initially planned approach (reversal of direction from
which
they were approaching the airport initially...
IOW....a change from rwy 9 approach to rwy 27 approach).....about 12 years ago
I guess.
Airport located in mountainous terrain?
"p" airport designator turned out to be
assigned to TWO (corporate programming error) airports within 120 miles of one
another, one surrounded by mountains,
the other not? Recall this one???
Corporate programming error (in all American south amer.) notwithstanding....
a string of basic pilot errors but the
biggest one....
when was the last time you descended at
night or in IMC conditions below the highest peak (or obstacle) within your
"grid" when unsure of your EXACT location
/position within that "grid"?
Well in your case, the answer is obvious...
'cause like me, you're still here. :)
I mean....you gotta be kiddin' me.
But....that's what the crew allowed the
computer to do. One part of me felt so
sorry for these guys....the other part simply
couldn't believe this humungous basic pilot error. Calculators and computers???
Gotta
KNOW and (hopefully) not discard/forget same in favor of automation ("it's gotta
be right....it's a computer"....yeah...rriiight.)
Cap'n Bob
Basic Frog
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