Originally Posted by
KayPam
To speak for myself, recently line checked
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What is an appropriate or inappropriate time, then ?
I only see crew fatigue as a factor, and maybe very turbulent conditions which would ask for keeping FDs on.
I hate to be the one to ask, but if you don't mind me asking, what's your total airline experience?
There are plenty of good reasons to keep the automation, outside of turbulence and fatigue, e.g. flying to a procedural airport with two languages spoken on the frequency, ton of VFR traffic around and high terrain in the vicinity. Am I going to be flying raw data? No. Am I going to keep the autopilot in and encourage my colleague that we both keep an extremely good look out and listen out to avoid other traffic? You betcha.