Air Samurai: Is Naval Aviation Overtraining Pilots in the Age of Automation? - War on the Rocks
I have to get ready for work, so I’ll contribute my own thoughts tomorrow. I figure a lot of folks here will have some opinion as well.
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I am sure he’s right. It breaks my heart how boring flying will be for the last generation that gets to do it. But that’s why older people shouldn’t be involved in these decisions. They are too emotional about it, as I am. The one area he overstates is the oft-cited reason for FBW. Most planes, including fighters with FBW control systems aren’t so unstable as to be unflyable with mechanical controls. Rather the FBW systems are used to allow for weight savings and managed, consistent handling characteristics across types and loads.
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The comparison to WW2 Japan is a bit off the mark IMO. Japan’s pilot training issue was caused by their failure to cycle experienced pilots through training command, so all that experience just ended up KIA while in the USN the experience and knowledge was passed on to new pilots.
Part of the problem is that new pilots are taking longer to train and are entering the fleet slower than the departures of experienced ones.
And how much of the problem is a culture issue which encourages early departure of experienced pilots?
And how much of the “pilot shortage” is caused by America’s dismal health statistics? Or brass sitting on application packages for nearly a year, forcing applicants to change pipelines (happened to a friend of mine)?
Critics of a heavier reliance on automation for critical phases of flight, like landings, might question redundancy: “What if automated carrier landing software fails and the pilot doesn’t know how to land manually?” These concerns are unfounded.
Recent mishaps make that debatable. Machines, whether mechanical or digital, can and will fail. I don’t believe anything is 100% failsafe. We seem to constantly be repeating history with overestimating tech or capability.
The T-45 is outdated, sure, but the role it plays isn’t. The author seems to have overlooked the crawl-walk-run progression in mental tasking. If you go from a T-6 to a Rhino you’ll be traveling at 450kts with mental processes running at 150kts.
There’s also an argument for conquering minutiae to promote more precise flying. “Put the thing on the thing” with an automated system gets the job done easily and efficiently, but does it do it surgically and consistently? Flying the numbers on a manual bombing pass is a transferable skill to automated processes. Stuff as simple as precise aerobatics in the Speed and Angels campaign pushed me through a flying skill plateau I had in every module, even the fancy fly-by-vote modules.
It feels a lot like the whole “5 paragraph essays aren’t a thing in the real world so why teach it?” argument. The vehicle isn’t the point, it’s the skills taught and exercised within that is.
That doesn’t mean I disagree with his core argument of accelerating the training pipeline, but I thought the Navy had already started working on that? Jell-O’s LSO episode seemed to indicate they were shortening FCLP and other requirements.
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That was exemplary. I agree with each and every word in your post.
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Agreed +1
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I’m with you Eric, I can’t let go and totally rely on ‘the machine’.
It isn’t just about flying either. I use a GPS a lot but despair for my younger cohort who don’t really know how to use a map, compass, protractor and stubby pencil!
But that is exactly why older people need to be involved in these decisions.
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Overreliance on GPS is why I see so many of the younger generations struggling with something as basic as retracing your steps.
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As I get older my respect for older people diminishes. I think recent American politics might be playing a role and someday I’ll again learn to respect my age. But for now, my feeling as that old people tend to hoard all the power and the wealth and use that advantage to promote their worn old ideas. London will never need taxi drivers with “The Knowledge” again. And again it breaks my heart. We humans are amazing when we are allowed to function at a high level. We suck when we don’t.
Here’s a schoolyard conversation from 1988:
“What does your daddy do?”
“My daddy is a F-14 fighter pilot!”
“Wow! Your dad is like Tom Cruise? Landing on aircraft carriers at night after killing MiGs?”
2030:
“What does your daddy do?”
“My daddy is a F-35 Fighter Pilot!”
“Oh, so he gets carried off a boat by his autopilot, never gets closer than 20 miles from his wingman, orbits for hours at 40,000 feet directing drones and then gets “ubered” back to the boat? So your daddy is basically an airline pilot, right? Boooring!”
Yeah I know that’s unfair and harsh. But I’ve talked to these guys. It’s not the same as it was just 10 years ago. “The Knowledge” is no longer needed or even wanted. Without it, the glamour is gone.
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You and I need to play some pickleball. Just don’t ask me to ride a OneWheel or run a 10k afterward 
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And because of that, any incentive to innovate or even try…
So I guess the future of aviation for aspiring pilots is looking very much like this?
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RIGHT!
But maybe there’s kids out there who think Top Gun: Maverick is an old-fashioned buzzkill. Maybe the thing they hate most about Interstellar is Matthew Mc flying the thing manually (unnecessary, self-indulgent and impossible!). Same with Luke taking over from R2 on the way to Degobah. Maybe to them, a world free of mundane “manipulation” tasks is the exciting one. For them, collaboration with robots with a smart human as the node is endorphin-pumping! To me, it really is Wall-E. Maybe that kid would respond, “that’s precisely why YOU shouldn’t be calling the shots for MY generation!”
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I’ve read your post on the racket thread. I wish I lived near you. I have no friends in NJ TBH. Well I do, but we’ve got very little in common. I think longevity requires light physical activity with people you like.
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There’s a term for this: “Children of The Magenta” and it’s deadly! Unfortunately, I think AI and automation is going to replace pilots at a much much faster rate than any of us would like.
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I was accused of being one of those (that exact phrase “child of the magenta LINE” actually–the first time I ever heard it) in 1998. It wasn’t true of course. I had plenty of steam experience and gobs of NDB approaches. The old fart who threw the slur at me was ex-USAF. So I called him a “Child of the GCA”. We didn’t talk much that trip.
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An ideal world free of mundane… Maybe?
I have vivid memories of a Primary (i.e. Elementary) school teacher telling the class “As factories become more automated, it will create more free time for people to indulge in recreation, pursuit of the arts and leisure”
Total BS. All it has done is kill once thriving and skilled trades (e.g. most metal fabrication jobs - fitters, turners, machinists, etc) and allowed less and less people to accumulate more wealth, while your average Joe who didn’t do great at school but might have been happy learning a trade couldn’t because there are no longer appreticeships on offer and is stuck in a dead-end service industry job and still working 60 hours a week to feed the family.
Now with AGI just around the corner, the only growth industry for 90% of the population is the ‘Service Industry’ and before too long the best you could hope for is to serve drinks to someone who is taking their annual two week vacation from serving drinks…
I think I need an aspirin and a little lie down.
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We all do. We see all of human history through our little lens of 20th century post-war peace and prosperity, a strong middle class, well-paid trades and exciting technical advances. But maybe that’s just a pleasant blip in a rather less egalitarian human paradigm. If you are scared and frustrated just know you are not alone.
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Facts. I cannot recruit or retain trades people without massive pay increases. I’m talking almost double from 2 years ago. Just supply and demand.
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You hit the nail on the head. The most important thing in training a pilot is teaching them to think, what to think about, and how to do think and fly at the same time.
We’re literally creating new neural pathways in the brain. Not just teaching rote processes.
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