Originally Posted by
simmy
SIN to DXB in a widebody. 0100 schedule departure but several hours late. (Me 50+ year old captain, F/O 35 year old). Glorious flying weather, DXB in sight before the descent point. F/O disconnects A/P at descent point and barely moves the controls until the flare. Me working like a one armed paperhanger complying with his requests for flaps, gear, radio calls, crew landing brief, tiny bye bye to the pax and other small distractions. I was often out of the loop and worn out when we landed. In a courteous way I asked why he had decided to give up the wonderful automatics available and instead just sit staring at the instruments when he had such a glorious night outside with views even! " I like a challenge he said!"
I heard later after I had left the Company that the F/O was made Fleet Manager.
I've often wanted to tell that little tale....and now I have.
I did fly for a UK airline and during recurrent simulator training I was amazed how often the first action of pilots when an emergency was simulated was to disconnect the auto pilot. Honest!
I do wonder if it wasn't you that day.
Granted, a crew briefing should have been done before, as the PA, but the rest sounds like standard PM tasks, whether flying manual or not.
He might have asked/informed you earlier but what kept you from asking/ordering the automatics back on when you couldn't keep up?
We routinely fly manual from descent point till landing and if one or the other feels overloaded or out of the loop or there is any other reason someone feels like it, the automatics go back on.