PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Once a pilot - now a computer's sidekick
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Old 22nd Jul 2012, 23:45
  #56 (permalink)  
By George
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 575
Received 74 Likes on 18 Posts
A few people here still don't get it. Of course you can hand fly but with most companies SOP's it loads up the non-flying pilot to the detriment of his primary role of monitoring and cross-checking. MCP selection to support a PF manually flying can get very busy at times. The aircraft are designed for auto-pilot use to allow greater situational awarness, allowance for fatique etc. Not to mention giving the support pilot a free hand to cross check everything.

By all means keep hand-flying skills up, but only when the weather is good, traffic is light and brain is not fatigued.

The thought of some goose hand-flying the Lamborne hold and arrival into EGLL during peak hour traffic is mind-boggling.
By George is offline