IgnitionO w.r.t. '
UK the airlines are not really interested in piloting skills' - sorry to report but that's not true. Veritably many of our Ops Manuals specifically state that we should guard against erosion of hand-flying' skills.
Indeed, to help make the point, I recently opperated the following flights in a B737-300 :
Departed in darkness from London-Gatwick ( en-route Innsbruck / INN; it being a Cat C airfield worthy of considerable respect ) with both autopilots u/s. On approach (LOC 26) to INN weather was such that at MDA we were unable to see anything at all ( except heavy snow and a big dollop of ice on the wiper nuts & wings ) so, "GoAround" followed by diversion to Munich. The whole trip, and return to LGW, was hand flown; When we got back to LGW the next flight, by a different crew, similarly despatched ( sans autopilots ) for Tenerife and back ( were at just over 4 hours in each direction, plus a turn-around in the middle, that's got to be a long night !
).
Departure from Stansted during which both Flight Directors failed. Ergo no autopilot or lateral / vertical guidance - and we coped admirably.
Now I could go on and on with examples but, needless to say, we're actively encouraged to disconnect the 'automatics', get hands-on with the beast and keep our scan sharp; However, that said, there's the time and place ( along with crew experience levels ) to be taken into account and if, say, the TMA is busy we prefer to have the autopilot ( if available ) engaged until establised on the GS - doing so helps to keep it safe.
