Originally Posted by
hans brinker
I look funny at pilots that hand fly all the way up, and then leave the AP on till 500ft on the approach. Climbing is easy, just keep the nose pointed up, once clean no more trimming required, and there is (mostly) no requirement to hit TOC at a specific spot. Hand flying the arrival takes a lot more skill, also, if the FD is on you might as well keep the AP on.....
My
PR for 'hand flying', without touching the yoke, is 6000' or 7000'(?). Nothing like talking about the need for more guys to hand fly...and not touching the yoke for thousands of feet. In the last 250+ hrs I've seen one FO turn the auto throttles off on arrival. One. They are not required to keep the auto throttles on. The degrading of skills isn't always someone else's fault.