Originally Posted by captjns
I hand fly every(?) leg with (No FDs) to RVSM. Disconnect from TOD if cleard to a FL below RVSM regardless of Wx conditions(?). I encourage my F/Os to do the same except with FDs in the Wx until they gain experience, then their option.
(The bold print and question marks are mine)
Even though I'm a big fan of flying manually and do so on most (not every!) approaches (read my previous message), I think you're exaggerating! Let James fly the airplane when it would be (just as) boring to do otherwise (descending "manually" along a STAR from FL290 down seems pretty boring to me) Also I would hope you would keep at least the F/D on when the metar reports cloudbase at the CAT I minimum with 800 m visibilty. There's one thing you should NEVER switch off: common sense!
(edited for spelling)