"What utter rubbish. Used in an appropriate ATC or environmental situation, raw data hand flying is perfectly safe. Unless of course the pilot lacks the ability - in which case he should not be either in command or second in command of a jet transport aircraft with passengers."
Oh dear, what an attitude, I agree with some of the sentiment but the expression of it leaves me wondering, don't think I want to fly with you Tee Emm.
On something like the B747-400 where handling is minimal it is common for the PF to want to hand fly where possible but it has to be remembered that in a busy ATC environment if the PF is hand flying then you have 1.5 pilots watching the ship but if the auto-pilot is selected then you have 3.0 pilots watching the ship. Departing LHR it was SOP to select auto pilot at 400' to ensure noise abatement whilst other airports did not require such close adherence to the SID, often canceling it shortly after take off, so hand flying was OK unless the PNF was getting buried under ATC as well as mode and configuration changes. Huge difference between arriving at ANC, (Anchorage), at 0600 on a clear spring morning and arriving at ORD, (Chicago) at around 1700 local on a wet Friday afternoon in winter.
Back to the thread, be careful about "preparing" for the SIM, stick to a sound knowledge of emergency and non-normal procedures. I have seen people so worked up about the SIM that when the engine failed they ignored all the clues and stuck in full wrong rudder, that was the one they had been practicing in their chair/sleep etc.
