Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
Listen close, boy.
When you are a single pilot, 'George' is not your co-pilot.
George is a part of the machine that is trying to kill you.
You guard the controls when you select AP, or, you choose to be a passenger, which means that you are no longer The Pilot, you are just one more poor bastard along for the ride.
If you can't teach that to your students,then you are part of the problem.
The crash in question had One Pilot.
When you have a co-pilot, the context changes.
But at least one of you needs to behave like a friggin' pilot.
This message was brought to you by a helicopter pilot who was taught that the pilot flies the machine, and is a master of the machine's systems ... or is ******* dead along with every other poor bastard along for the ride.
Ive read some garbage on this thread and some very interesting useful stuff. Unfortunately with your comments, I have to agree with SASless. The AP is there to make the machine easier to fly. Switch the AP’s off and the ride becomes hard work in an S76. Not impossible by any stretch, but once the AP’s are engaged, the 76 is very stable with no FD modes engaged.
If you now engage the FD modes for say ALT and HDG, you then monitor what it does and can intervene easily if you don’t agree with the inputs. Any machine or system can fail, but from every single instructor or examiner that I’ve flown with in the S76 for 15 years, all over the world, they all say if the sh*t starts to hit the fan, engage the FD modes to help you out and reduce workload a little if you can. Not one of them has ever said ‘oh just disengage the autopilot because its trying to kill you’
Now you come along and spout crap about George is trying to kill you? I have to say I disagree very strongly with your statements. I wouldn’t be surprised if the press pick up your comments and use them for Sensationalist Headlines. “Autopilots, The Killers In The Aircraft!”