Originally Posted by
Undecided
I agree SASless, I have seen some woeful use of automation over the years. Correct use of automaton should be an integral part of a type rating. We don’t want to lose hand flying skills as is happening in the airline world but having just got way out of shape and massively over-torqued the only sensible option in this incident was to engage the autopilot and then start working as a crew as to what they were going to do next. I am still completely mystified as to why a 6000 hour plus pilot would chose not to (or didn’t have the knowledge how to) engage simple altitude hold and heading hold modes. I can’t imagine how frustrating that must have been for the co-pilot with the poor manual flying skills being displayed by the Commander.
Proper understanding of automation is essential. I’m certainly not against the view of manually flying in IMC for the purposes of maintaining a perishable skill, however once presented with the evidence that your manual flying is of a detriment to the flight then it’s time to leave it to the autopilot. Personally I think I would have been so spooked by the initial incident that I wouldn’t hesitate to let the automation do it for me, instant stress reliever.