In many ways the weekend warrior that flies his Cessna 172 around for fun is probably a better pilot that a lot of guys flying the big jets. One hand flies ever

In many ways the weekend warrior that flies his Cessna 172 around for fun is probably a better pilot that a lot of guys flying the big jets. One hand flies everything the other mostly just kicks on the autopilot and sits back. There are certainly airline pilots that still have a passion for aviation... some even still teach in their down time, but it's increasingly uncommon. Too many don't do enough 'real' flying anymore. They're mostly just sitting up front to make sure the autopilot doesn't screw up... and sadly accident data shows when the autopilot does screw up the pilot forgets what to do (see accident reports where the autopilot stalls the plane and pilots forget basic stall recovery procedures).