Radar Contact said,
"Funny enough, in our company we are not encouraged to use this function in manual flight. Seems it is considered "too complex" for us dumb "bus" drivers..."
Do you mean manual flight using the "bird and cage" (FD's on) as you put it ? Sure, if that's the case it can load up the PNF on a non-precision approach if you keep calling for adjustments to follow "into the cage". If however it's with flight directors off and just the bird, I'd say it's a positive safety enhancement. It tells you what the aircraft is doing relative to terra firma which is very useful during a visual circuit/approach.
Put the wings of the bird on the horizon of the PFD and you flying level. Put the bird 2.5 degrees below the horizon and you're on a 2.5 degree "ILS". The bird also shows your drift/track. With the automatics, the TRK/FPA (Track/Flight Path Angle) really is the bees knees for flying accurate non-precision approaches.
A4
