Amount of Hand Flying
 

Used the search engine but found no relevant threads so:

How much time on average do you get to hand-fly for your airline in a given month (in hours and/or minutes). By hand-flying I mean autopilot and auto thrust disconnected.

It would be useful if you could say the company and a/c type.

sr

As much as I like. Up to 90 hrs or so.

Major carrier, Airbus, shortrange.

Doubt you'll find many pilots who know how many minutes they hand-fly!

Generally speaking, as long as:

the weather is ok
I am not tired
there is nothing wrong with the aeroplane
I am familiar with the airfield
we are not in a busy TMA
the captain is happy for me to do it

then I hand-fly every departure (to a few thousand feet, but I engage the autopilot before levelling) and every arrival (from about 2000-3000 feet agl).

I fly the Dash-8

737; short and medium range.
Usually around 5 mins after T/O (of course with autothrottle) and a couple minutes raw data and without A/T during the aproach; depending on weather. On a nice day of course nice visual approaches, in winter weather lots of automatics. Average would make this around 7 minutes per sector PF. Say average is 25 sectors PF. So around 3 hrs per month.

Autopilot AND autothrottle disconnected? I'd say less than 10 minutes per month, all on final approach below 1000ft. B744, major carrier. The autothrottle is engaged for departure when I'll fly it manually up to about 10000ft. I don't fly manual approaches in busy TMAs when I've been up all night and am half asleep.

Hand Flying
 

well lets see, about 90 hours a month, but then again, I fly the twin otter

Some companies request that you engage A/P A/T above a certain FL on T/O, same on landing thus making hand flying time very limited. However in some cases it's legal to make a flight with a defective A/T A/P: Then good luck because with the F/A rolling the trolleys along the aisle and PAX getting up at weewee time you'll have to be a pro with trims. Unless you're flying a bus or another fly by wire gadget. Did you knew that the bus had a very simple cockpit? 3 buttons= Climb, Land and coffee.
So if you do the math not that much and I would say around 10 minutes per leg...
MD83/SF34/RJ100/BE90

On average, zero, the auto-throttle would be engaged throughout.

Last month on British registered B777:

Q) How many hours/minutes with autopilot and autothrottle dis-engaged?
A) zero minutes

Q) How many hours/minutes with autopilot dis-engaged but autothrottle engaged?
A) 7 minutes

Q) Total hours/minutes 'flown' during month?
A) 82 hours


p.s. I'm currently looking for a nice Chipmunk or Piper Cub.:hmm:

On most all sectors, hand fly to FL200 or so, regardless of weather, and generally from FL100 on down, unless an automatic approach/land is desired, or required.
Lockheed L1011.

The First Officers generally do this as well...very experienced guys on type.

Hi CR,

When I was on the B747 classic for a large cargo company I typically flew up to transitition altitude (usually around 18,000) and then after descent from transition level (below 6000). I hand flew much more than most did but I liked to keep proficient. Being on the high side I bet it was 10-15 minutes per leg so about an hour or so per month out of 50 hours of block time. :zzz:

I used to fly the CRJ, on the climb out I would hand fly up to 10,000. On visual approaches I would hand fly from about 10,000 feet down, and on instrument approaches I would hand fly from about 3,000 feet down. I also hand flew more than most, but the CRJ was a great "hand flying" airplane.

as little as possible as:

a) I have alas only 2 hands and one is used to hold the regenerator (a.k.a known as coffee)
b) usually I need both hands to hold the newspaper anyway
c) hand flying annoys the F/O who the has to turn or push knobs and thumbwheels, pushbuttons and switches, thus preventing him of taking care of the nearest and cutest flight chick
d) most passenger quickly resort to the infamous bag as I have yet to see a pilot act on the controls as smoothly precisely as the A/P
e) I leave the hand flying for my off time SEP flying
f) my company prescribes: switch A/P to on when climb attitude has been established
g) the modest salarium attributed by my employer prevents me from working

Thanks to "George", faithful companion :ok:

Handflying? Only in severe CAVOK..... weather below CAT I = Autoland
Our FOM requires Autoland if RVR is below 550m. In IMC Autopilot on.
Visual you can disconnect and fly manual. Why handflying in a busy area?
That is not rasing the safety only the stress level....15 Years ago I would
not answer that way but the RVSM and the dense traffic ask for is toll and
that means let "George" do the job and watch him doing it good. :E

Fly safe, manualy and with the automatics engaged and land happy

Best wishes NG

FO on A320.
Weather and trafic permitting:
- On departure, manual flight up to 10000ft at least.
- I fly the approach manually, A/THR off and AP off at around 10000ft, FD ON or OFF.
I don't want to become a button pusher who's afraid to disconnect. I use the automatics in busy airspace and bad weather but I want to keep my handflying skills so I hand fly whenever I can. Don't understand the people flying a visual APP with AP!

757/767 F/O

Company SOP to select A/P after selection of climb thrust...I tend to stick with that on the way up.
On the way down (traffic and workload permitting) FL100 or below all the automatics are out:ooh: I usually find the airport

I have my own non-normal checklist which i like to call "Captain hand flying above 10,000ft" - it is a very simple one...
Condition: Captain pissing me off by unnecessarily hand-flying at high altitude and i have to keep an eye on the silly old fart because we might end up upside down.
C AUTOPILOT...........CMD
:ugh:

The grey-haired Captains might have avoided serious problems during actual approaches because they hand-flew most approaches when they were FOs. Many here hand-fly up to about 12,000'. On approaches, starting before we intercept the localizer, some hand-fly, many keep the alt. hold engaged ( there is no alt. capture function) and turn the autopilot turn knob as they push and pull both throttles, using at lower altitudes about 70 or 80% N1 or fuel flow for the speeds on P&W JT8Ds (-7,9,11,15, & 17, some intermixes).
Often, a DME/altitude restriction can only be verified if the Captain has his VOR on another station (i.e. Carlton). The FO can only couple to what is on the left VOR (Captain's side).

Our FOs are not new-the most junior (at bottom of 700 furloughed/laid off) probably has at least 6,000 hours and three type ratings, and that includes those who have backgrounds in both tactical/training+transports.
The civilian guys probably have 8,000 hours, if not many more, for what it is worth.

Fatigue and visibility might be reasons to couple the autopilot to the ILS, but again, with just one of these factors, maybe not. This narrowbody fleet has NO autoland, therefore, in the US at least, if you are afraid to hand-fly, you will not want the job. Even some DC-10s are only Cat 2 certified.
This works well on the 757 or the DC-9 :) (this has no automation except altitude hold and approach coupling; no flight director allowed for the BC-LOC.).

"Fresh" F/O on B737-800 and B737-400

Handflying:

• On departure: at least until 10000 ft, however A/T always selected, normally with F/D engaged; in CAVOK sometimes de-select F/D; this helps you to look "through" the F/D and makes you know the body attitudes on the ADI (you never know when this F/D fails for real and you need your pitch-power table in your mind)
• On arrival, CAVOK, normally at 1000 ft, disconnect A/P and A/T and fly and land manually; when the left seat permits, this 1000 ft altitude will be raised, I like to keep the manual flying skills. F/D OFF approach also makes you really look at the ADI and see the pitch you need. When low ceiling and visibility, disconnecting when visible before DH or MDH; if real bad, autoland...we are CATIIIA approved

Happy landings

B737

I wonder if the very nature of this thread has caught the interest of the handflying brigade as in my experience few people regulary handfly above 1500 feet.

As for people claiming to handfly an airbus..... well that is for another thread I guess...