It’s not that easy!

This is a great article by Patrick Smith, an airline pilot, on the mistaken belief held by many that a pilot’s job is an easy one now that the cockpit is filled with automation.

Will pilots eventually be eliminated altogether? Perhaps someday, but here’s what I believe: Nobody alive on this planet today will ever take a seat on a pilotless commercial flight. Not because they can’t or shouldn’t, but because the task is too massive, too complex.

Maybe I sound arrogant or self-impressed — or scared, like the teletype operator, foolishly clinging to hope at the dawn of the computer age. But you’d be defensive too if a majority of people thought you were an overpaid slouch whose duties are better handled by a computer. If you’re skeptical, don’t take my word for it. Talk to somebody who flies for a living and who has endured an airline training program. Ride along on a simulator session and watch a crew battle engine fires, microbursts, single engine go-arounds and rapid decompressions over mountainous terrain. Take a look sometime inside a modern cockpit.

Be sure to read the rest of the article - it’s great stuff and there’s more to come.

• Online add-on database
• Free online route planning site launched
• Flight Simulator X World gets a facelift
• Flight sim web sites