[Shivatron]

As an instrument-rated pilot, I reject your brazen assertion that radio work is "by far the hardest part of flying a plane." Are you speaking from personal experience, or do you have some data to back up this claim?

From an instrument proficiency point of view, I'm much more worried about efficiently understanding the information on the approach plate, maintaining situational awareness with respect to the approach path, adhering to minimums, and so on. Missed something that a controller said? "Say again." There's a reason it's aviate, navigate, and communicate--in that order.

[jillesvangurp]

I can bounce that right back. Do you have solid data proving beyond reasonable doubt that task saturation is not a major factor in airline crashes (considering pilot error is cited frequently as a root cause)? And would you reject tools that reduce task load because of that?

You bring up a fine point: aviate, navigate, and communicate - in that order. Very sensible when everything is manual and you are task saturated to drop tasks in that priority; which is what this is about. If you automate communication and remove most of the task load related to that and navigation, it frees you up to let the auto pilot do the aviation bit.