Shadowing Practice: Will Pilots Become Obsolete? SINGLE- and NO-PILOT Operation explained by CAPTAIN JOE - Learn English Speaking with Video

Nowadays airplane manufacturers and airlines are working closely together to reduce the number of pilots in the cockpit more and more

to potentially a state where no pilots will be required to fly a plane.

Dear friends and followers, welcome back to my channel and to a dreaded video topic.

Yes, we do have to talk about it as this topic is being addressed more and more in the aviation world.

The hype about the potential single pilot operation and or is artificial intelligence going to replace the pilots entirely?

What can we expect and should you worry as a pilot or a future pilot?

What are we waiting for and let's get started.

A few years back some airplanes needed a four-man crew to be able to operate the aircraft safely.

You had a navigator, the flight engineer, the first officer and the captain.

Now the navigator has become completely obsolete and the engineer you do see every now and then,

but 99% of all airlines are safely operated by two pilots.

Technology just got better and better over the years.

Nowadays, airplane manufacturers and airlines are working closely together to reduce the number of pilots in the cockpit more and more,

to potentially a state where no pilots will be required to fly a plane.

Wouldn't that make this guy super happy?

But in order to understand this better, let's first take a step back and look at why aviation is even able to talk about single pilot operations.

Therefore, we need to understand the implementation of the autopilot.

The first autopilot was developed in 1912 for mainly two reasons.

First and far most to assist the pilots and reduce their workload on longer flights.

Now just imagine the amount of workload former pilots were dealing with.

Navigating, avoiding weather, finding enemy territory and besides all that, fly the damn plane, which wasn't the most reliable either.

So the first autopilot had two features, maintaining altitude and heading.

Very basic, but an absolute milestone in the aviation industry.

The second reason was to reduce the accidents due to fatigue and pilot errors in bad weather conditions.

As mentioned earlier, the pilot had to manually fly every flight for the entire duration of the flight by hand.

This causes extreme fatigue and potentially dangerous situations, especially when the pilot encounters bad weather or low visibility conditions,

plus low oxygen levels.

Now two of my colleagues experienced an unreliable airspeed event a few months back

and then they had to fly the aircraft manually from New York to Chicago in lousy weather.

They had to change over controls every hour because symptoms of fatigue were kicking in.

Side note, Mythbusters showed that fatigued drivers made more mistakes on the road than drunk drivers.

I advise you to neither drive your car in either state.

So now you can imagine the dangers of a fatigued pilot

entering bad weather in the last 30 minutes of the flight

and is required to fly an instrument approach right to the minimums.

So we can say with no doubt that the autopilot was and is an incredibly helpful tool for any pilot.

Now take note tool, a very important word to remember.

A single pilot in the cockpit of a plane is not a very uncommon sight in smaller general aviation aircraft.

Legally you are allowed to fly an aircraft with one pilot given that two requirements are met.

One, the aircraft is certified by the manufactured to be operated with one pilot, such as the Cessna 172 that we are all very familiar with,

and most of the Cessna Citation jets.

Secondly, the aircraft is legally allowed to be operated by one pilot, given that it complies with certain legal requirements

like being under 12,500 pounds maximum takeoff weight and less than nine passengers on board.

I will not bore you guys with all the legal parameters to fly a plane single crew, but what I will make clear is

that most airline jets are required by their manufacturer's operating handbook

as well as the company's operating manuals to be operated by a minimum of two pilots.

And because airline CEOs are greedy and want to save as much money as possible,

they are trying to change this to one pilot or even in the future no pilot at all operations.

I have personally met one of those pro single pilot or no pilot cockpit CEOs.

After a brief chat about this topic with him, I made sure that he would never hire me.

According to an article published on Euroactive in September 2021,

Airbus is developing improvements in their technology to one day eliminate the need for a co-pilot in the cockpit.

The article states

that Airbus is in negotiations with the EU regulatory authorities on

whether the technology can be used to certify aircraft for single pilot operations,

either for the entire flight or certain flight portions, for example during cruise.

They claim that their technology is capable of handling most of the duties required

and that the pilot on board will only be on board for strategic decision making and monitoring of limited systems.

A job apparently only one pilot is needed for.

Really?

Are you sure about that?

The EASA is currently discussing two scenarios.

One where long-haul flights can be reduced to only two pilots rather than four, like on my last rotation,

for example, stating both pilots will be in the cockpit for critical phases of flight, such as takeoff and landing,

and then only one pilot will be in the cockpit during non-critical stages, such as cruise.

They will rotate with each other during the flight, always having one crew member resting.

The second scenario is a fully single pilot operation where only one pilot will be on board.

This will be on shorter flights initially and the program is known within Airbus as Project Connect.

Funny enough, many of you have already flown on this plane or are even type rated on it.

Now pause the video and make a guess which plane that might be.

3, 2, 1, yes, the fourth best looking aircraft after the 747,

Concorde and the Supermarina Spitfire.

It is the Airbus A350.

That is the future.

As much as I love Airbus

and their constant strive to improve the aviation industry in regards to safety

and fuel efficiency they are the ones pioneering the spo the single pilot operation it's always a bad sign

when they already have an abbreviation for it

and will be starting with this project in 2025

and the leading airline in connection with airbus at this time

is make an educated guess primarily flies long haul out of

hong kong yes good old kathy pacific with With the technology already implemented in the military by flying drones autonomously

and flying others from the ground,

the co-pilot's position will in the future be replaced by an aircraft dispatcher trained in basic flying abilities.

Dispatchers today handle anywhere from 5 to 15 aircraft at the time, supporting them with route and weather information in real time,

etc. It is proposed that during single pilot operations, the dispatcher will act as a backup pilot,

assisting from the ground if the single pilot on board requires any assistance.

So, as we can see, reducing the number of crew on your flight is,

sadly, a very real discussion going on by airlines and manufacturers today.

Claiming that it will be safer and more fuel efficient,

the more autonomy is brought into the cockpit and the humans are taken out of the equation.

And of course, it saves companies millions in salary costs per year.

Just a brief reminder, salary costs are absolute peanuts for airlines compared to airplane leasing and fuel costs.

Salary costs are less than 4%.

So taking out the first officer will make all the difference.

Yeah, right.

Don't get me wrong, seriously.

But will this be possible?

Will the technology be able to completely replace the judgement, assistance and safety a co-pilot provides?

100

Let's look at a few hurdles the manufacturers and airlines and authorities will have to overcome before taking away the co-pilot.

101

First of all, the pilot is part of a safety critical system.

102

A system that was designed over the years to connect

103

and introduce harmony between the pilot's judgment and the computer's ability and accuracy.

104

Now while we have backup systems on board an aircraft, we also have a backup when it comes to human ability.

105

Removing a human from the safety equation will,

106

without a doubt, reduce the monitoring capability and problem solving capacity of the cockpit environment.

107

And until now, any addition and improvement in technology has been implemented to improve safety.

108

This one will directly reduce it again.

109

We hear a lot about pilot error.

110

Every other aviation YouTuber talks smack about pilots planting their plane into the ground about the mistakes they've made.

111

But we are rarely told about pilots saving the day when technology fails.

112

This happens more often than you think.

113

If you want to see how it looks when technology fails on a flight deck,

114

have a look at the flight of Qantas 3-2 and imagine a single pilot in that cockpit when that happened.

115

I have three words.

116

No thank you.

117

What they did was a miracle how they saved that plane, trust me.

118

Number two, what about pilot incapacitation?

119

When the single pilot in the cockpit becomes ill or passes out, you are left with no human intuition and ability in the cockpit.

120

That will put some real confidence into the rest of the crew and fearful passengers.

121

Authorities will have to be able to demonstrate the ability of the technology to monitor a single pilot

122

and notify the cabin crew when the pilot is non-responsive.

123

This is the day when the Microsoft flight simulator pilot gets his chance.

124

This introduces another problem when it comes to sleep.

125

Depending on which sleep cycle the resting pilot is under,

126

it will take him a long time to be fully cognitive and able to first see the situation and react.

127

Number three, redundancy.

128

People make mistakes.

129

Do them all the time.

130

When taking out the second pilot of the cockpit,

131

you will have to implement a system that is able to recognize that what the pilot did is a mistake.

132

It is one thing to have a computer to tell you that 2 plus 2 is 4, but to have a computer understand the situation you are in

133

and the decision you made from that situation is a completely different thing.

134

In the interest of safety, the pilot can decide to deviate from normal procedures, but will the technology allow him to do this?

135

Will it understand?

136

Unusual instructions are a daily obstacle or pilots need to follow, for example, from A to C on ground or in the air.

137

That is the huge difference.

138

That makes aviation so interesting because it's so diverse and every day is different.

139

Number 4, safety.

140

We all remember the tragic German wings accident.

141

The other safety issue is with technology, the more automation and AI, the more threat of cyber attacks.

142

Remember, if we get to no pilot operations, an operator will operate their fleet of aircraft from a command center.

143

This gives us the terrifying thought of a hacked airline fleet.

144

Authorities and manufacturers will have to prove their technology is unhackable, and I'm not so sure how plausible that is,

145

playing remote control planes with actual planes and passengers.

146

That's a headline that writes itself.

147

Number five, mental problems.

148

Leaving a pilot in a cockpit alone on long-haul flights for several hours will have a massive psychological impact on the pilot.

149

Additional and special training will have to be implemented for such environments,

150

so having a crew member with you at all times is a big morale boost.

151

Taking that away, in my opinion, is pretty problematic.

152

Number 6.

153

We have not even looked at the problem relating to upgrading co-pilots to captain, etc.

154

Today, a co-pilot needs to fly a lot of hours with captains in order to gain the experience of commanding an airliner.

155

If airplanes are only required to be flown by one pilot, how and when will new pilots gain their experience?

156

Also what about the public acceptance, pilot workload during turnaround, pre-flight setups,

157

paperwork etc. This all contributes to mental fatigue done by only one pilot.

158

I just don't see it.

159

It's too much, if you ask me.

160

There are so many things that need to be overcome that we cannot fit them all into this one video.

161

So I will leave you guys with my personal opinion.

162

In recent years, success is measured on how cheap we can do something, not on how safe.

163

I hate to break it to you, but there is a blue and white airline, which is one of the biggest contributors to this trend, especially here in Europe.

164

I believe that in the past, when safety was replaced by profit, bad things happened later on.

165

And unfortunately, profit is the big motivator in this case.

166

So many aviation incidents and accidents are a sad indication of this trend.

167

The Covid pandemic has undoubtedly caused financial pressure on airlines, and this might just be a financial solution for them.

168

Safety on board an aircraft is directly dependent on the human factor.

169

Yes, automation is an amazing tool as discussed earlier, but that is where it is good at.

170

It is a tool, not a creative problem solver in emergency situations.

171

So why not develop a safer cockpit by designing these incredible

172

technological improvements in the cockpit environment in order to increase safety even more?

173

The first word in aviation is, in capital letters, SAFETY.

174

Let's improve it and not compromise on it.

175

In the past, innovation was the cost of many innocent lives.

176

Surely today we can innovate and not compromise flight safety at the same time.

177

That's it for today.

178

Let me know in the comments below what you guys think of the idea of a single pilot airline

179

or a no pilot airline.

180

Maybe we can start a poll in the comments to see where the aviation world or fans stand on this topic.

181

Thank you very much for your time, here's your checklist for today, subscribe to my channel, check, activate your notification bell, check, follow my Instagram account, check,

182

perform a touch and go at my website,

183

check where you can get this amazing book and don't forget a good pilot is always learning, wishing you all the best, your captain girl.

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72 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Will Pilots Become Obsolete? SINGLE- and NO-PILOT Operation explained by CAPTAIN JOE”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: pilot, flight, cockpit, airline, aircraft. This video has 183 sentences and 2443 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:11. The speaker talks at a steady 142 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
cockpit noun	/ˈkɑkˌpɪt/	A well, usually near the stern, where the helm is located.
airline noun	/ˈɛɹˌlaɪn/	A company that flies airplanes to transport people and goods.
aviation noun	/ˌeɪ̯.viːˈeɪ̯.ʃən/	The art or science of making and flying aircraft.
airbus noun	/ˈeɹ.bʌs/	A subsonic jet airliner, especially a wide-bodied one.
fatigue noun	/fəˈtiːɡ/	A weariness caused by exertion; exhaustion.
airplane noun	/ˈɛɹˌpleɪ̯n/	A powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings: a fixed-wing aircraft with at least one engine or electric motor.
autopilot noun	/ˈɔtoʊˌpaɪlət/	A mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being.
implement verb	/ˈɪmpləmənt/	To bring about; to put into practice; to carry out.
workload noun		The amount of work assigned to a particular worker, normally in a specified time period.
haul verb	/hɔl/	To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.
certify verb	/ˈsɜː.tɪ.faɪ/	To attest to (a fact) as the truth.
dispatcher noun	/ˈdɪs.pætʃ.ə(ɹ)/	In a transportation organization, a person who controls the movements of vehicles.
navigator noun	/ˈnavɪɡeɪtə/	A person who navigates, especially an officer with that responsibility on a ship or an aircrew member with that responsibility on an aircraft.
takeoff noun		A launch or ascent into the air or into flight, such as of an aircraft, rocket, bird, high-jumper etc.
manually adverb	/ˈmænj(u)əliː/	By hand.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
take out verb		To remove.
pass out verb		To faint; to become unconscious.
step back verb	/stɛp ˈbæk/	To stop what one is doing and evaluate the current situation.
take away verb	/ˌteɪk əˈweɪ/	To remove something and put it in a different place.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

What are we waiting for and let's get started.
Wouldn't that make this guy super happy?
Are you sure about that?
Don't get me wrong, seriously.
I just don't see it.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	will be required · being addressed · was developed
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has become · have already flown · has been implemented

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, they've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: aviation /ˌeɪ̯.viːˈeɪ̯.ʃən/, automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/, equation /ɪˈkweɪ.ʒən/, abbreviation /əˌbɹi.viˈeɪ.ʃn̩/, intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/
Long words — get the stress right: aviation /ˌeɪ̯.viːˈeɪ̯.ʃən/, autopilot /ˈɔtoʊˌpaɪlət/, navigator /ˈnavɪɡeɪtə/, manually /ˈmænj(u)əliː/, automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like cockpit, airline, aviation.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Will Pilots Become Obsolete? SINGLE- and NO-PILOT Operation explained by CAPTAIN JOE - Learn English Speaking with Video

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