ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several ways in which automation and preparation for future supervisory control work in cockpits could be meaningfully integrated in the stages where the groundwork for pilot competence is laid. It discusses ab initio training, the phase in which new recruits is brought up to commercial pilot status in about 200 hours of flying. The limited flying time received during ab initio training is mostly gained on aircraft whose level of automation has little resemblance to that of the pilot’s ultimate working environment. Even without advanced automation in training aircraft the future performance of the student could benefit from learning that manual flying is only one among other modes of flying while practising the basic flying skills. Although automation has fundamentally changed the roles of people on the flight deck, it has not reduced the need to invest in human expertise. Treating automation as a separate subject may misrepresent its place in the curriculum of modem flight training.
