Ameriflight/Merlin

People think because of the acceleration of technology from no phones to an iPhone the trajectory must remain the same and we are on a collision course with a growing world of population but all jobs are being replaced by robots, from the medical room to the tubes flying in the air. Doomsday prepping at its best.

Let's just stop beating around the bush here and just tell us now how much silver and gold you have in your basement....
 
I always thought I screwed something up when weird crap happened...

I’m definitely not immune form that either, but I’ve watched the 76 pitch down for 3500 FPM for a 1,000 ft change. I’ve seen it try to overspeed numerous times on both the 76 and 75 in VNAV, and I’ve watched it do a very lackluster attempt at meeting a speed/crossing restriction in Path and then just give up many times.
 
Two thoughts.

1. What do we do when a foreign power decides to hack the automation or spoof the GPS and use the unmanned cargo planes as cruise missiles?

2. What do you do as the lone human pilot when the half-terminator robot arm glitches and reaches over and grabs you inflight, or seizes the controls etc? They better have some verrrry reliable way for the human to overpower it. And the company better make sure the maintenance happens, and we all know these companies are known for the most reliable maintenance.
 
What should we be doing, panicking? Everyone in almost every job is replaceable by robots

Adding skills to your toolkit. Learn stuff.

I never thought I’d do anything other than fly airplanes for a living, I love it - but I already had to face this scenario. Thank goodness I had learned other things over the

Everyone in almost every job is replaceable by robots.

Yeah, but some are more difficult to replace than


When the new world order arrives how about we deal with it then instead of accelerating our receding hairlines about whatif-isms.

I don’t know, having a good fallback can’t hurt anything

isms.

I'm still more worried about medicaling out of this industry at any moment for something you can't control, than being kicked out due to robots.

Tell me about it, thank god I went to school for something other than just airplanes as an adult…
 
Oh, wow! He's planning early and has a sheet of paper in another subject! Woah there everyone. If only we could be so smart
30F4CC36-23C4-425E-A8F6-26C78124755F.jpeg
 
Oh, wow! He's planning early and has a sheet of paper in another subject! Woah there everyone. If only we could be so smart
View attachment 62282

i mean, I lost my medical last year, I’m 33, so… it can happen, I was relatively healthy before that.

naturally your mileage may vary, but having some extra skills and credentials has helped me immensely. (As much as I’m loathe to admit it)
 
i mean, I lost my medical last year, I’m 33, so… it can happen, I was relatively healthy before that.

naturally your mileage may vary, but having some extra skills and credentials has helped me immensely. (As much as I’m loathe to admit it)
I'd say that's definitely a smart plan, don't count your chickens until they've hatched.
 
Pilots are probably one of the last jobs worth doing that will get automated out. There’s a ton of other “backup” careers I’d be more worried about that happening in first.
 
I'd say that's definitely a smart plan, don't count your chickens until they've hatched.

that doesn’t mean “ignore the actual dinosaur eggs in with the chicken eggs.”

if we’re really lucky, robots will never replace pilots, if we’re kind of lucky we’ve got another career or two left of time, if we’re just lucky, we’ve got 10 to 30 years, if we’re unlucky 10 or less.

How old are you going to be in 10 years? Do you want to be re-envisioning yourself then if you can’t retire? Or do you get some skills now, do a side hustle that you enjoy, and make being prepared for things if things go bad easy?

I never really intended to do that, but I went back to school for math on the side of flying because I had some questions and finished when I was 30. I was interested in the field, and programming related stuff, so what I’m doing now (as some sort of strange contract tech apprentice) is a great fit. Regardless, I got lucky.

either way, find something you enjoy outside of aviation that society values, and get sharp enough on it to be able to transition to employment - if you never have any need for it, it will make you a better more worldly person, if you do need it, it could be the difference between feeding your family or not.

I disagree with a great many facets of the way the world works. But I can’t change the rules, I must merely play by them. As soon as it is both technically and financially feasible, businesses that can capitalize this technology will. At that time, I would really rather be prepared - just saying (having lived this experience already).
 
Dude you can get in your car and get hit by some random guy and die tomorrow. Is that a dinosaur egg in your basket too? There's being smart with money and your career/retirement and then there is paranoia. Don't confuse the two.

You're literally blabbing on to some person you don't know about what to do outside of work, LOL.
 
Dude you can get in your car and get hit by some random guy and die tomorrow. Is that a dinosaur egg in your basket too? There's being smart with money and your career/retirement and then there is paranoia. Don't confuse the two.

You're literally blabbing on to some person you don't know about what to do outside of work, LOL.

we can all die tomorrow, I’m just saying, “be prepared.”

one day you’re going to take your last flight as required crew. Could be when you’re 57 or it could be when you’re 40, or it could be tomorrow. Regardless, it WILL happen.

when it does, what are you going to do next? My best days are in front of me.

With regard to automation, the incentive is there for an engineering solution to be created to the “how do we find pilots” problem. There are people working on this right now. Time will tell if they will succeed, but there’s a lot of money being thrown towards this space.

I don’t mean be paranoid, I mean that you should have something else you can do, ideally something interesting and fulfilling enough to justify making a living at it. Be smart - I wasn’t but fortunately I got lucky. Be smarter than me and have your side-hustle or whatever ready to take over immediately.
 
How does one prepare for the possibility of death tomorrow? That might honestly contradict your whole point. Maybe we should enjoy our lives and be more free and careless because tomorrow could be our last day....
 
So...former AMF'er here. Let me clue you all on some things. 1. No two planes at AMF fly the same. Planes have names and personalities. It will be interesting to see automation work out the difference between them.
2. How will it handle the mountain of MEL's and deferrals.
3. Expect AOG's to be high...which won't make their customers happy. One thing with automation and modern aircraft. You can't just "slide" with things not working properly by getting by with good ole' piloting. There are metroliners in the fleet that had autopilots that were worthless. They were constantly up and down 200ft. So unless they are getting a fleet of new planes....

Autonomous aircraft are coming, but I can't see AMF leading the way. It will likely be FedEx and their feeder fleet. They have always been on the cutting edge when it comes to keeping their fleet modern.
 
Wait. If this happens where are the UPS interns that were promised a time building job prior to getting hired going to go?
If they still have their "SIC" program I imagine they will just have people do that with the robot as PIC...

I can see a single pilot large air carrier type aircraft In the near future. No different than going in from 3 to 2 on the flight deck, it happened quickly. Passengers, not technology, will prevent pilotless 121/135 aircraft in the near future but it’s only a matter of time.

I can see ATC becoming automated starting with enroute.

Honestly, the German Wings accident will be big part of the fight for not going single pilot. A remote observer can't prevent a no time deviation at a critical moment. Automation will also have to be able to be overridden as well in case of failures.
 
3. Expect AOG's to be high...which won't make their customers happy. One thing with automation and modern aircraft. You can't just "slide" with things not working properly by getting by with good ole' piloting. There are metroliners in the fleet that had autopilots that were worthless. They were constantly up and down 200ft. So unless they are getting a fleet of new planes....

I had Metro AP try and bop me in the head once. Bent down to test the boots and the AP pitched up hard for no reason in cruise.
 
How does one prepare for the possibility of death tomorrow? That might honestly contradict your whole point. Maybe we should enjoy our lives and be more free and

I have to live with the possibility that I’ll be rendered an invalid daily. The medication I take for this raises the chance of a particular horrifying brain infection. It’s basically something that they can’t do anything about, and it’s something that would just come out of the blue. It’s very difficult to go from being “master of my own destiny, MMFIC PIC” to have every twitch of the eye or weird pain (that you get from being in your 30’s) be a portent of doom. I’m very much aware of this but don’t think it negates what I’m saying (“be prepared”).

Over the last year, since I got sick, the big thing I’ve realized is that while we can’t anticipate the day or the hour in which we’re going to die (and we’re all corpses in training), we can learn to live well now, and take care of ourselves in ways that -if we live - we’ll be able to enjoy later.

Future me is a person just like me, with hopes and dreams, and things that piss him off, etc. Do I go out of my way to make future me’s life difficult, or do I do things that are considerate for him? Yes, I can drink this whole bottle of wine and eat half a pizza, but tomorrow morning me will suffer for it. Yes, I can simply fly and do nothing else, but I need to save money or educate myself because otherwise future me will be pay for it.

So how much do you prioritize future you over present you? That’s up to you to figure out, but ignoring him or her all together is hazardous. Some day both of you will meet, and it would be better if you met under happy circumstances and there was no bitterness between the two of you.
 
Back
Top