Single-pilot crews for airliners?

Exactly! If it doesnt happen in my lifetime, then its never, as far as im concerned!

Learn to think different. We are where we are good or bad because of those who came before and forged the trail and thought ahead to the next generation, or not. I am at the end of my career. I take heat for offering a perspective that spans over 30 years that some of you don't want to hear. That's fine. For those that want to ignore the trends and put your head in the sand..... go for it; Certainly your right. You will in time come to realize a fact; The vision of the road ahead is often only as clear as the distance you have traveled. For those of you only in this for 4-5 years, I would not expect you to see much further than 4-5 years ahead.
 
Seaav8tor....So wouldn't technology change everything and everyones professions? I mean....why do we need CPAs to balance a companies books when a computer could do it? What about ship crews, cabdrivers, train engineers, soldiers, teachers, servers in restaurants, computer IT people (maybe one day computers will diagnose their own issues), chefs, etc etc etc. Heck if technology has infinite potential everyone's profession is theoretically doomed.

Heck with enough genetic altering/engineering maybe we wont need doctors anymore.

BTW as I stated in another post I think the non-rated pilots in the C402 are in bigger trouble than the Airbus. Did not Mythbusters recently show someone talked through an autoland on an airbus sim?

Learn to think different. We are where we are good or bad because of those who came before and forged the trail and thought ahead to the next generation, or not. I am at the end of my career. I take heat for offering a perspective that spans over 30 years that some of you don't want to hear. That's fine. For those that want to ignore the trends and put your head in the sand..... go for it; Certainly your right. You will in time come to realize a fact; The vision of the road ahead is often only as clear as the distance you have traveled. For those of you only in this for 4-5 years, I would not expect you to see much further than 4-5 years ahead.
 
I will let someone with experience in those careers present trend data and forecasts for the future potential or lack of. Clearly some careers move ahead and make progress and others go in reverse. Of course pilots do not exclusively own a declining trend but we certainly have maintained a steady diet of "One step forward, and two steps back" for decades. Over 5 or 10 years it doesn't seem like a very big deal. When you zoom out to 25 to 35 it gets really ugly. I post these thoughts not to stir the pot or seek personal gain. (If the ship ever turns around I will have already timed out) but to nudge those who might not be aware to open their eyes.
 
(8) A computer will kill 500 people and CNN will ask "How could the FAA have let this happen?" But will anything change? nope.

;)

(9) In this future anrgy computer pilots will be on Jetcareearz (human spelling will be worse) complaining about working for Coulligan, the crappy pay, and long duty hours... "These guys only reboot me every 48hrs, over at Deetala, they do it every 24!!!!"

Just had an afterthought... what will happen when these sentient machines go on strike? What will computer scabs look like? Will they be MAC's?
 
The willingness of passengers to get in the airplane is one thing, but the complexity of cascading system failures in a large airliner vs. the possibilities of system failures in a twin piston is not comparable.

I agree, but I thought that the point of the thread was that humans wouldn't accept a single pilot or eventually an automated pilot. I was assuming in this scenario that the FAA gave it the green light, assuming that such technology could exsist.

I just wanted to add that humans, at least in the carribean, will crawl into anything that has wings. VAL and Seaflight are single engine turbines, which I think is scarier than a piston twin anyday! I would prefer to fly Cape Air over the other two I mentioned. Nothing like losing your ONLY engine over the ocean!
 
Fact is, we're gonna see unmanned trains before we see unmanned aircraft. We don't have those yet, the technology has been there for years, but it's less than reliable. Even with a recent crash of MANNED trains, there's no real implementation in sight. The infrastructure for trains is less complex than that needed for aircraft. Trains can't be cleared "direct to destination."
 
Seaav8tor....So wouldn't technology change everything and everyones professions? I mean....why do we need CPAs to balance a companies books when a computer could do it? What about ship crews, cabdrivers, train engineers, soldiers, teachers, servers in restaurants, computer IT people (maybe one day computers will diagnose their own issues), chefs, etc etc etc. Heck if technology has infinite potential everyone's profession is theoretically doomed.

Heck with enough genetic altering/engineering maybe we wont need doctors anymore.

BTW as I stated in another post I think the non-rated pilots in the C402 are in bigger trouble than the Airbus. Did not Mythbusters recently show someone talked through an autoland on an airbus sim?

Just as the job of "clerk" has changed with the advent of new technology, jobs that once used to be will change or go away. There are LOTS of jobs that have ceased to be. Luckily, new ones open up as old ones go away. Auto welders give way to robot programmers. Technology moves on.

Let me just say this, I hope that we someday have been replaced. In the more and more of cases, WE are the weakest link in the error chain. Eventually, that fact will be well known, and easily demonstrated. It isn't something we like to hear, I know.
 
Fact is, we're gonna see unmanned trains before we see unmanned aircraft. We don't have those yet, the technology has been there for years, but it's less than reliable. Even with a recent crash of MANNED trains, there's no real implementation in sight. The infrastructure for trains is less complex than that needed for aircraft. Trains can't be cleared "direct to destination."

Maybe so, but it is still coming, like a freight train....
 
Sure, why not? I have a lot of experience flying single pilot, and I'll do it for 1/2 the total pay of a legacy crew...where do I send my application?
 
My view as a person currently in R&D is that with most "game-changing" or "cross-cutting" technologies, the time frame is neither never nor tomorrow. It's just somewhere out there on the horizon and we're slowly getting closer to it. Invention of the integrated circuit to "Droid does" took 50 years. Things take a little bit of time, but eventually they can change the world.

Single pilot airliners will happen - sometime. The key is to remain open to all the other interesting things that are happening along the way. The thing I enjoy most about flying is not the view but being an operator making real-time decisions in a complex environment. That environment can be found outside of the cockpit even in a high-technology world. Stick and rudder may only be for recreation, but I agree with C150J - if keep an open mind those operational jobs will always be out there.
 
Im sure Jtrain can verify this as a former amf training dude, but based off of the percentage of people I saw in training that could NOT hack single pilot in a Navajo, and washed out only to fly pax two crew in a jet at a 121 ailrine, I don't see this concept being implemented until they can get airliners to fly completely on their own.
 
Im sure Jtrain can verify this as a former amf training dude, but based off of the percentage of people I saw in training that could NOT hack single pilot in a Navajo, and washed out only to fly pax two crew in a jet at a 121 ailrine, I don't see this concept being implemented until they can get airliners to fly completely on their own.

Are you saying that the both of us are hacks?

:)
 
I flew there for a year. :)

I didn't know you washed out, I thought you were a training instructor?

I didn't wash out, it was an attempt at a joke, as in everybody that leaves Amflight for the regionals is a hack :)

We DID have around a 50% washout rate for a period of time, though the interesting thing is that I'd say the majority of guys that we had coming on board had already blown multiple interviews at the regionals, and were at Amflight as a last ditch effort to move onwards and upwards.

What happened to the people that washed out and had blown interviews at regionals? No idea.
 
What happened to the people that washed out and had blown interviews at regionals? No idea.

I know one guy who flunked the first week indoc exam is about 400 numbers ahead of me at my current company! Life is a who the $#@& knows,
crazy ride. :)
 
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