from PJ2:
....It was "normal" after a while and flying a raw-data, no FDs, manual thrust ILS even in clear weather slowly became a real challenge.
That, quite frankly, is not and never was, a good thing. Autoflight's a simple bread-and-butter assistant, not one's keeper.
Guess we're from the same "mold",
PJ.
As I have oft-stated, I encouraged the fighter jocks I flew with/helped learn to use the A/P to reduce workload when things got very BZ. With only one human in the jet, the A/P really helped during a WX abort/diversion to new field or an alternate approach. The big difference between our use of the A/P was that it was the exception and not the rule. Sure, we used altitude hold and heading hold when crossing the pond or flying st-and-level for more than 10 or 15 minutes. But we never used it from 500 feet AGL after takeoff until final approach. Seems to me that with a crew of two or more that "the other guy" can handle the admin and the pilot can simply fly the profile best he/she can.
I have a hard time understanding why the human pilot cannot descend/turn/climb within a few knots or a degree or two heading/pitch. My only experience in a "heavy" was a joyride in the 'vaark. Sucker weighed 3 times what my Viper did. That being said, I flew a st-in and landed the sucker all by myself after about 20 minutes of "stick time". Once getting it lined up and trimmed, holding within 2 knots and a half degree of required pitch for the descent was a straightforward exercise. It was like on a wire. Very comfortable. And my B747 captain buddy said the same thing about that beast.
And be advised that in the T-33 with the J-8 attitude indicator that we made pitch corrections for a GCA or ILS approach using the thin white line on the "horizon" line - figure about a half degree of pitch or less. The SLUF had a "flight director" to cue you when intercepting the ILS glide path and centerline. The Viper was pure manual, and you can see my emergency landing HUD here to see how we did it ( Q-time required):
http://www.sluf.org/warbirds/lef-landing.m4v
For those HUD naysayers, I can guarantee that a raw nugget made beautiful approaches first time. That flight path marker didn't depend upon any air data - it was pure inertail vector, and was easy the "lead" the turn or pull.