PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Apnea, early starts blamed in Hawaii pilots' nap
Old 22nd Feb 2008, 20:14
  #34 (permalink)  
manrow
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Devon, England
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if your hand flying would keep passengers awake, you better turn your autopilot off more often and practice hand flying
sevenstrokeroll, you must be joking!

A modern autopilot can achieve a smoother ride at altitude than even the most practiced pilot can ever achieve.

One of the biggest myths in aviation today is that we will lose our handling ability if we don't hand fly frequently. I use the autopilot extensively as monitoring its effectiveness is exactly the same as monitoring the other pilot's flying; my performance on check rides has not faltered as a result. Monitoring the autopilot function gives me more time to consider the options and in my experience has not contributed to fatigue a much as flying used to do when I had to hand-fly for hours on end!
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