Originally Posted by
industry insider
Normal practice used to be to disconnect the AP after landing. Controls should always be covered by one crew member while anyone is near or under the disc. Is this still procedure or has it changed?
Not with the later designs like the 225 and presumably the S92. The AP is engaged after start, remains engaged the entire time - ground taxiing, flight, landing on a moving deck etc - and only disengaged just before shutdown. It is automatically in a different mode on the ground which prevents any “disc motoring”. The advantage is that it’s one less thing to be able to forget (had a few 332s lift off offshore with AP disengaged, nearly crashed) and/or if you have to lift off in a hurry eg when taxying you have the AP straight away. It doesn’t use the WOW switches on the undercarriage (fortunately, as they are not the most reliable) but rather an algorithm that looks at several parameters and has various fallback modes should those parameters be unavailable. I imagine the 175 will be much the same.
Although the 101 is somewhat older tech, there’s a fair chance it’s similar.