In the interest of completion???
I invested some more hours into this beast and many things became clearer.
1. Nothing is intuitive
2. This is an aircraft/system that is not meant to be flown, it is meant to be managed.
3. Therefore, the joy in this aircraft is in successfully inputting data that will allow an almost 100% automated flight.
A perfect flight in it is: Full throttle, pitch up to FD cross hairs at V2 and hold, gear up, AP engage, flaps up, flaps down, gear down, more flaps, reverse thrust. Done.
Reviewing the FAA working group on incidents and cockpit automation reveals surprises that strike fear into my heart as a traveler. Almost 25% of pilots surveyed (anonymous) replied that they did not fully understand all the intricacies of the automated systems they were working with. The report notes that there are further problems in that that the current generation of pilots are not ???stick and rudder??? guys and gals, like the last generation that were primarily ex-military. A not insignificant number of these new
???flight school??? pilots are not fully competent in the manual flight maneuvers that become necessary upon systems malfunction. They tend to rely on the automated systems.
On the bright side, when programmed correctly (another dismal point in the work group paper actually) the system is very good at actively managing the aircraft in all modes of flight. And so, I learn data entry and dream of Cessna 182s
I am I little apprehensive about the next flight in my que, EKCH > EKVG. Non-precision approaches in an Embraer 195 to a short runway (4001???) in what seems to always be terrible weather. Luckily only my ego is at risk, heh???
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)