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Personally I put knowing the code in the same category as knowing the exact specifications for the metal in every piece of my airplane.
The challenge with the modern wizz bangery is to be able at a practical
That's not really much of a challenge.
Modern pilots have to decide if they want to aspire to be Sully or are content to be a clerk with a nice view. 99.99% of pilots will get through their careers without ever needing Sully's level of knowledge. The other 0.01% will either become dead (along with their pax) or legends.
There is a lot of talk of the “Miracle on the Hudson”. Personally I don’t think it was a miracle. Sully knew in a very practical way how the airplane worked, For example because of that he understood the importance of getting the APU going ASAP..
I am pretty sure he could not explain the code that enables the flight control laws in the Airbus, but he has an intimate understanding of what he can and cannot do with the airplane at each law,
The work Sully put in to master the machine was IMHO the reason everybody survived that fateful day. That is the concept I was I trying to explain in an admittedly poor fashion in my earlier post
The thing is, you don't know what bit of system knowledge is going save you until you are in the crisis. The more you learn, the better your chances of survival. A true aviator understands this and will learn everything they can.
I think we are saying the same thing in different ways. My challenge is that in old airplanes cause and effect were obvious. You pull the lever and through cams and cables and pulleys the X was activated. With the current magic I find the connection between pushing the soft key and X happening is often not as obvious.
That being said you can make the argument that understanding first principles is now more important than ever.
Bottom line: curiosity in how things work seems to exist strongly in all the pilots I respect.
