Originally Posted by
Matey
On Britannia Airways 737-200s only the Captain had HDG SEL. The F/O only had CWS in both lateral and vertical axes.
Alt Hld had to be manually engaged on reaching assigned level, having reduced the rate of climb/descent using CWS. No V/S mode either, but we did have VOR/LOC. All selected through massive rotary switches which engaged with a satisfying clunk. Ah...those were the days!
Correct. CWS was used quite a bit on the -200 as stated above.
Plus in the sim, we knew that on the circling approach,we had a good chance of getting a missed approach with an engine failure so the autopilot was left on during final as low as possible. If no missed given, disengage in the flare, if a missed approach given, you now had an easy and smoothly done way to level off for acceleration by quickly selecting Alt Hold when at acceleration height. Perhaps more of a sim thing.