Hand Flying
 

Hello Pilots,

I'm wondering how much hand flying you do when in VFR conditions, when in the terminal area, i.e. take offs, approaches, landings, circuits etc.

IFrom watching a couple of 'in flight' videos, it appears that the autopilot is used 99% of the time.

When flying a visual approach how soon do you disengage the autopilot ?

(How soon would you *like* to turn it off ! ;)

What are your company policies regarding autopilot, in VFR conditions ?

How about visual / departures ? It must be fun to actually 'fly' the plane as long as you can ...?

The 'gadgets' are great for IFR, in fact providing everything's working ... (which is hopefully most of the time !), but how much 'stick and rudder' do you get to do ?

Mike

It depends on the situation... e.g. a relitively simple departure, visual day, then depending upon the captain I'll happily hand fly it, although it tends to get dull above 20K. It's good if you can practice at least one level off though...

As for arrivals, if a visual approach, downwind or base, when the automatics are of no longer any use. Flying takes up so much capacity that it is difficult to make the most efficient approach while hand flying...

Had on one of my early flights as an FO in 737 an autopilot failure. That night I had to fly manually all the way from EDDF to LGTS above FL 300... My captain let me fly all the way, because he said, it would be a good training... :) Not enough we had to enter a holding (I believe it was at 9.0 DME at MKR) and do a VOR approach. The flight took about 3 hours - I was afterwards really trashed - and the passengers probably as well.... :)

And in our company we have a rule that says "best use of equipment", means use of A/T and A/P is recommended but for practice.
Unless IMC, I fly most departures by hand up to 10k. As for the approaches, I will disconnect it when the RWY is in sight or much earlier for a "raw data", which is very good value for the next simulator check and is practiced only in VMC.

Talking about capacity, it is always interesting to lose a FADEC, then having to switch the A/T off, and observe the amount of attention one has to pay to maintain if only the speed in the limits...

------------------
... cut my wings and I'll die ...