Pampered pilots are so reliant on computers they are forgetting how to fly, airline safety group warns

No they aren't. They just need something to blame that crash on. the Airbus incident

"pampered pilots" lolz

right? look at the average hiring pay on a new FO at a regional and tell me if they are pampered or not

FLY the plane, don't DRIVE it!! (my old check-airman always said)

Do the airlines have any regulation about when to use auto flight computers and when not to use them? Or is there just a new 'lazy' culture in the ranks of pilots these days?

"The autopilot must be engaged for
cruise and flight level changes while within
RVSM airspace (except when circumstances
such as the need to retrim the aircraft
or turbulence require
disengagement). "

"Lazy culture" isn't the appropiate description, as erroneous would be to blame vehicles' cruise control for every highway crash.

Surely all these wealthy MDs & VCs (Venture Capitalists not Viet Cong) who are purchasing the Glass SR22s & the G1000 206s are not on the "fasttrack"to become CRJ Captains? I think the fault lies in the so called "ab initio" flight "colleges" & schools. This "modern" way of training just might not be working out to well! Do the legacy airlines hire anyone now or is it just the regionals that are on the hiring binge? Let me ask this: do American 121 carriers ever hire pilots with crop-dusting experience, Beech 18 or DC-3 flight backgrounds (I personally have NEVER seen an AGplane, Twin Beech or DC-3 with a working Autopilot; somebody had to actually "hold it"! Why don't the Regionals (legacies, too) start a remedial flying program where their new hires spend 60 days hand flying an 18 or a 3 before they begin their IO training? The small freight business has been so utterly destroyed the Bush-Cheney-Obama Great Recession that even the cash strapped US Airlines could afford a few ancient (but REAL Airplanes) Douglas DC-3s or Twin Beech 18s (DC-3 prices are well below $100,000 per copy & in good flying shape) Thus the young men & women who people the cockpits everytime I glance into the flightdeck when I am forced by circumstance to endure modern day air travel (everyone now knows & expects the "security" humiliations) would develop some form of "feel" for actually FLYING & not just "programming" around the sky!! And what would be more fun: handling a real Douglas on a real runway in a real 22 Knot crosswind OR play acting as a computer programmer/airplane driver in a $10,000,000 sterile Flight simulator with multi-colored "flight"indicators???

... im training in a 1957 172.... i want to become a 777/787 pilot someday. the only glass on my plane is the crap in the windows

This same article or very similar one, was posted on FA 1st of the week and had over 40 comments. Find it under "popular squawks", same title I believe.

While there are some facts in this article, the hype and inflamitory filler in between is far from the truth and is very very misleading.