[A friend said: you aren't really an instrument rated pilot until you can hand fly an ILS to minimums on one engine while eating a hamburger.]
and as my Nav instructor said - you'll never make a Navigator until you've been over Berlin with the shells coming through the cockpit as you make the pilot fly steadily on 3 headings 120 deg. apart as you try to work out the upper wind from readings you take through the drift sight !
I never had to.
One of our WWII Captains flew his last 707 flight to New York and back to London before retirement by hand flying the thing all the way. ( I guess he had to make some arrangement to drink his coffee and visit the toilet, but other than that ...... )
Not saying it was a good thing, just saying he did it ! ( I was told )
Once had to fly across the Atlantic with a u/s autopilot, the Captain and I took it in turns, 30 minutes each was about all we could manage before losing concentration.
I seem to recall that passing 10,000 - up or down - was a signal to engage autopilot, unless there was some problem that needed attention, in which case engaging the autopilot was a recommended practice, to release hand/brain resources to attend to the problem.
Wasn't it Eddie Rickenbacker, of Easten Airlines fame, who refused to instal auto-pilots in the '30's, he said "our pilots are paid to fly, let the b***ers fly" and it was only when the Sperry Autopilot of the day proved to help with fuel saving, i.e. money saving, that he relented ?
Such fun, sounds like it's all gone now. I blame Bill Gates.
Last edited by ExSp33db1rd; 5th Mar 2014 at 19:31.