Thanks. I'm here. Some of these thread topics have a technical side to them that gets so complex (or tedious depending on a person's point of view), or is so controversial, that we move our discussions into PM, email or phone chat and let the thread itself go on without us. Frankly, I move to PM/email as soon as possible on some threads.
This OP interested me though. It strikes at the heart of a topic I hear in R&D circles as to why pilots, along with wages, are being de-emphisized in favor of automation. R&D nerds get giddy at the idea of the ultimate achievement, replacing the pilot. As strange as the book title and cover art is on this book, I don't blame Murdoughnut for presenting the book as a joke. It might look like one. But I happened to know who this guy Yung is and, in his own way, he's campaigning to make pilots more relevent to employers. Some advanced military instructors are worried about the same thing....too much reliance on automation. Yung's pitch, or hook, is that GPS and other technologies can be knocked out, not by terrorists, but by EMP, star wars technology, etc., and probably will be someday. Ed, who is also an avid glider pilot, wants to see the training industry hang on to instinctual piloting methods that are going dormant.
But I have to wonder what he was thinking with this book cover. This is Ed Yung and his 1960's era family. Maybe his plan was to get Murdoughnut's attention with the weirdest aviation book cover in history. If so, it worked. He's on JC, but off to a rocky start. Don't judge this book by its cover. Yung has something to say about piloting, and navigation in particular.
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