speaking as a former programmer for a large airline, Pilots for small regional jets usually rely solely on experience, while your average cross-country 737 pilo

speaking as a former programmer for a large airline, Pilots for small regional jets usually rely solely on experience, while your average cross-country 737 pilot has a co-pilots experience and a small cross-reference manual in the event of failures or warning lamps. you're still "flying" the aircraft with the exception of landing assist and the TCAWS Jumbo jets are an entirely different beast. You're starting and stopping procedures are similar to any other commercial jet, however large swaths of the plane are entirely computer controlled. this includes jet engine ignition and reignition in case of flameouts. Elevation rate and descent rate are also computer controlled. Pilots in turn are saddled with phonebook sized procedure and countermeasure manuals that determine what to do in the event of anything even remotely out of the ordinary from cracked windshields to broken elevators. The fact that these pilots could recover from a massive engine shutdown of this nature is remarkable, as most pilots are trained to "never stop flying the plane" in the event of a failure. all engines offline means they either had to engage the APU mid flight to help power auxiliary systems, or they were struggling to manually move hydraulics without any assist. Pilots are trained that engines go through ingestion testing to handle anything and everything, so its not surprising they thought nothing of the ash...A Rolls Royce Trent engine might not seem that large but each one delivers nearly 100,000 pounds of thrust. This, combined with a 10 stage compressor, is enough to overcome even the most furious rainstorms.