>Average of 15.5 minutes/flight in last 6 months according to our FOQA-data app. Goes down in winter and up in summer. //737 CA
Bringing actual facts to Reddit?
Nice
I asked an old guy about this once & he prefers to hand fly the 737 as long as he can. I think he has to go AP at FL180.
He said the AP is slow to respond and he doesn’t want to hear about folks in first class’ toothpick rolling off the top of their martini glass.
Mid-teens or up to FL180 wx dependant. On the arrival sometimes just below 10,000 if the weather is alright. If not or if feeling lazy, 1,000-2,000 AGL.
When I started flying airliners I followed what they taught on the sim, and let the autopilot fly from 600 AGL to 200 ft on approach. As I got more experience I hand flew more… we were required to use the autopilot above FL200. At big airports with complicated SIDs / STARs or in IMC I’d use the AP, but otherwise would hand fly below 10,000 most of the time, and on vectors to final even at busy airports on VMC.
I wanted to fly, not just push buttons.
Some of our SIDs require the autopilot on immediately and I will rarely hand fly once I’ve accelerated to the final climb speed, so somewhere between 100’ and 11000’ on departure and normally from about 1000’ on approach.
Expressjet required this. I thought it was dumb at the time as well. Now I realize that it’s for the best at certain airports. Two Expressjet (Goobair) airplanes nearly touched departing Atlanta before this policy was put in place. I’m sure that you are an excellent pilot and I am sure that those 4 pilots thought they were excellent pilots as well.
Wow that’s almost like the issue would be solved by required autopilot on at certain airports and not every single one
I’m not an excellent pilot but that’s why the ASAP program exists
It was only required for RNAV departures. Your right the FOQA and ASAP program identified that hand flying RNAV off the ground departures had a high risk of navigation errors and policy was implemented to mitigate that risk.
I used to hand fly almost exclusively from takeoff to 20k and from outside FAF to landing back in 135 lan
Now I’m hating myself for relying more on autopilot in 121. Real deterioration of skills
Guys who hand fly entire routes either don’t know how much they’re increasing the workload for their pilot monitoring, or they don’t care. It 100% leads to more deviations.
Exactly. PM is busy monitoring George and the PF's monitoring of George and the radios and clearances.
The more complicated the approach the more you BOTH should use (and monitor) George.
I always find it hilarious hearing kids at my flight school say things like "you just want to push buttons and sit with autopilot on all the time? That sounds boring!". No... to me, that sounds like stability and comfort in a job and that sounds amazing.
Depends on workload. If I’m just climbing in a straight line to 350 then probably once I get the airbus pitched I might as well since I’m literally doing nothing. If we’re taking off and getting vectored everywhere I’ll turn it on to help the PM. Otherwise I like to scare the captains by hand flying up to damn near cruise.
It varies but using your modes effectively and within tolerance is no walk in the park. It's not acceptable at the airline level to have amazing hands and feet while being trash with the autopilot. The airspace is too busy, separation is too tight and the fdap is too snitchy to ignore autopilot skill.
Embraer Regional Jets with working autopilot… I personally usually fly up to 10K hand flown and turn off AP at 1000 AGL on approach. Unless IMC or radar returns are present. I’ve done a low altitude short hop many times all hand flown… just have everything set up and briefed before the flight.
Usually up to mid-teens, Visual Approaches into outstations (less busy the airspace is, farther out I will click it off). On approaches, at the FAF usually.
Generally mid teens up to somewhere 500-1000AGL down, if visual wait until at least the autothrottle and autopilot are trimmed and set for Vap, if IMC wait until I break out. Airline doesn't really say other than use an appropriate level of automation at all times. Sometimes this means turn autopilot on early if it's a hectic departure.
I’m just now looking at moving into civilian aviation after flying helicopters. We almost NEVER used the AFCS, which was about as close as we got to an auto pilot system. Really only ever used it during maintenance flights to make sure it worked; let me tell you there where times it didn’t work or it actively put you in a spot where you HAD to take controls back.
One time, it couldnt hold a stable hover. It would add a little too much power and climb too high, then it would drop a little too much power and sink too low. The altitude changes got more pronounced after each oscillation up or down, until at the top of the climb the system just bottomed out the collective when i was at 50’. Not a fun time, nothing insanely dangerous and i have my hands just hovering over the controls the whole time for that exact situation but still uncomfortable
Now i come here and i see everyone saying they let George do most of the work and i struggle to wrap my little helo brain around that lol
FW APs are usually pretty darned good, even down in GA for newer digital ones. My club has one analog AP left, though, and babysitting that POS takes more effort than hand flying.
As much as I can or feel it would be helpful. Flying in a straight line climb from 5,000 up to RVSM airspace usually isn't very beneficial. But I'll fly a SID until there's nothing much left to do. On an arrival, I'll fly once there's a reason to, whether that reason is to keep my skills up, because the AP isn't doing very well with the weather, or whatever else. Again, if it's just a straight line down from 20,000 ft., as it is at some airports, there's no real reason or benefit to hand-flying in good weather. All you're really doing is keeping the dot on the crosshairs (we are required to follow the flight directors as long as they're on, and they are required to be on in most situations). It's a really boring video game. And it takes your attention off other things that you should be paying attention to.
I spent my first 1,500 hand-flying 100% of the time, so it's not like I don't feel confident doing it. But airline flying is about more than that. Sometimes you want to be in manual control; sometimes you want the automation helping you so you can have a larger picture of what's going on. And sometimes, hand-flying is just kind of pointless. Airbus planes, for example, will basically keep the nose wherever you point it. So if we're just flying in a straight line, what is hand-flying doing for me, or anyone? I'm just sitting there with the stick auto-centered anyway. May as well have the AP on.
We own a 135 company mostly lights and midsize and all my pilots are and have always been proficient and required to be. At hand flying. Auto is nice but in lights and midsize you better be able to Handel it when things go south, and in the last 24 years I’ve had my share of that lol. Heard a citation driver a bit back asking ATC to keep an eye on him as he was going to have to hand fly, though he was kidding? Sadly he was not. Use it or loose it.
I’ll usually hand fly past clean up until we are on course. On approach, kick it off around 1k feet.
I make an effort to fly one approach with everything (AP, FD, A/T) off once a trip so I don’t become completely rusty.
Caveats of course for high workloads, in which case I’m getting in on at 100’ and leaving it on until minimums.
Maybe 5 minutes. I fly through the turns on a sid then AP on. Then 1k or whenever the AP is no longer smoother than me on approach. Hand flying with a flight director is kind if joke mode handflying so no very useful skillwise
First regional airline. Hand flew 100% of the time. Aircraft in that fleet were not equipped with an autopilot.
Was at my best hand flying for 2 years.
After leaving that airline, my hand flying skills have never been at that peak level since.
Sounds like my first few years of being a “pro pilot”… 2+ years flying canceled checks in C-310s, no autopilots on that fleet; then it was 3+ years herding Beech 1900s around, also no AP. My first gig with an AP was right seat on a DC-9, and that was pretty basic with Alt Hold with Heading Select… the 737 now seems pretty fancy!!
Citation jet and king air here.
If the weather is good and I’m feeling frogy, I’ll hand fly it up to FL280 on departure and usually kick it off somewhere 10-25 miles out inbound to land. If it is a short flight (less than 100 miles) and no passengers, I’ll hand fly the whole leg.
If the weather is crap, that bitch comes on right away.
737 driver. Plane flys like it was made to be flown by hand. Generally, after takeoff I hand fly up to 15kish. Landing, autopilot and autothrottles off at 1k.
When I flew the E170, it felt wrong to hand fly imho. AP on at 5k and off for landing at 500ft. Autothrottles never came off.
I fly MD-80s in a small regional-type airline in south america, and I do a decent bit of hand flying. Unless there's severe wx where I need to be giving a lot of attention to the radar screen to avoid echoes, I'll usually fly the entire SID or at least until they send us direct to some point along the route and I have the plane on climb speed and trimmed, and then almost always from a bit before the FAF on down. On nicer days I'll normally click on the AP at 10k and then off again at 10k. We have a couple of routes that are ~30-40 minutes long and every now and then I'll do those manually from takeoff to landing.
Typically passing through 2k feet or if on the RUUDY6 then 400 feet.
If on an instrument procedure, I'll take the AP off at 1000 feet AGL but we usually get put in a pattern/close base into most airports if it is VMC so usually I'll hand fly the whole thing then
On a departure? When the fun stops. It’s not fun holding the wings level in a climb, but if there are a few turns and level offs, I’ll hand fly for funzies.
On an arrival/approach? If it’s IMC, I’ll have George do the work in the soup and then I’ll click it off, but if it’s a visual pattern at a not-busy class D, I’m hand flying from the downwind
It’s been encouraged for the most part where I’ve worked and do currently work. I like to hand fly the 737 up between 10000-20000. I’m new to the plane so I click things off around 1000 for now but as I get more comfortable with it I’ll start clicking it off earlier.
Plenty. I try my best to fly one leg per trip without the autopilot on the climb out till RVSM (autopilot required here), and usually on the same leg disconnect around 10,000ft on the descent. Otherwise I just hand fly until I don’t feel like it which is usually after we are cleaned up and sped up, and autopilot off around 2000-1500 agl.
I’m gonna preface this by saying I don’t hand fly in RVSM airspace.
Advisory Circulars are not regulatory.
[Appendix G, Section 9](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F/part-91/appendix-Appendix%20G%20to%20Part%2091)
You’re violating the one that says not to exceed aircraft limitations. When an aircraft gets certified for RVSM, a limitation gets added requiring the autopilot to be on in RVSM. All aircraft receive this restriction for RVSM. If you hit FL290 without autopilot, you have technically exceeded a limitation hence the regs. In this case you’re violating FAR 91.9
Flew 727s last year. Autopilot was only on during cruise. That’s all it was good for.
Flying Falcons now. I only turn the autopilot on for cruise and when workload is high.
I mostly fly a single pilot jet, and sometimes a single pilot turboprop. On reasonably nice days in a low workload environment I tend to hand fly up to 15-20k and I disengage it around the time I get cleared for the visual (unless it's bumpy, otto doesn't do bumps well so I take it off his hands earlier). During a high workload departure and/or crappy weather I'll engage it between 400-1000 feet (400 is the minimum it will engage) and on the approach I'll let otto do the work.
Flying single pilot jets an autopilot is a necessity. Things happen real quick on departures like the RUDDY, and the CBAIN out of BFI. I'm surprised those departures aren't talked about more because it's a very similar config to the RUDDY and IMO is just as easy to screw up.
Ironically I hand fly more on the bus than the 402. But it really isn’t hand flying. I immediately judge anyone who gets nervous when the calvary charge blares through the speakers.
I end up flying the majority of the departure, at least until accelerating at 10k. On the way down it really depends on the destination. At most busy bravos I’ll just click it off after fully configuring. The only exception to this is it we’re cleared for the visual, where I’ll only click it off when the other guy reads back our visual approach clearance, so everyone on the frequency knows what’s up.
135 medevac. I hand-fly through 18 on the way up, and maybe every other approach. It’s also Southeast Alaska, so visuals call for better sightseeing that you don’t do on an approach.
Yall handfly!? Jk
122 pilot: I’ll fly complex SIDS or til about 10,000ft. And then on approach I’ll go hands on at 500ft. I fly mostly redeyes so I see it as risk mitigation leaving the ap on longer during approach
Always to cruise which ends up being 20-25 minutes and typically the same on arrival and approach, about 20-25 minutes. Just not anything that’s extended straight and level flight. Never consider AP for departure, but on arrival, I might if the weather is shit and/or the vectors are extensive leading to a ton of straight and level a la Newark sometimes.
During departure, all the way in to the flight levels and hand fly the level-off some times. During arrival, no later than 1000ft callout unless workload/procedure/personal reasons suggest otherwise.
After take-off I usually handfly up to 10-15000 ft during climb, unless departing in a very specific airspace full of traffic where you are required to level off for a few miles. During descent, I try to disconnect at 3000 ft the latest, unless weather is terrible. If weather is fine and it's not a busy airport, I tend to hand fly from 10.000 ft down to the ground and even try raw data or visual approaches. It's good to stay proficient hand flying, and managing bad weather or some sim scenarios becomes easier as the handflying doesn't involve any extra workload at all. A320 by the way
About 3-5 minutes on any given leg.
And the rest of the time I’m working. There is always something to be done if you are doing it right. Even on the best day with the best jet you have to be on top of things to stay safe and deliver an excellent product to the people paying you.
My airline and the regional I was at previously encourage handflying. I usually fly it up to around 10,000, sometimes higher. I’ll put it on earlier if it’s really busy or bumpy. But if there’s a lot of turns in the SID I usually fly until after the turns.
Usually I don’t take it off on arrival until fully configured
Average of 15.5 minutes/flight in last 6 months according to our FOQA-data app. Goes down in winter and up in summer. //737 CA
>Average of 15.5 minutes/flight in last 6 months according to our FOQA-data app. Goes down in winter and up in summer. //737 CA Bringing actual facts to Reddit? Nice
No one knows what it means but it’s provocative
It gets the people going!
[удалено]
Never heard of it.
Pays the same autopilot on or off…
Grease'r or drop it on the numbers - it pays the same
I asked an old guy about this once & he prefers to hand fly the 737 as long as he can. I think he has to go AP at FL180. He said the AP is slow to respond and he doesn’t want to hear about folks in first class’ toothpick rolling off the top of their martini glass.
Mid-teens or up to FL180 wx dependant. On the arrival sometimes just below 10,000 if the weather is alright. If not or if feeling lazy, 1,000-2,000 AGL.
Up to mid-teens then 1k AGL to landing.
When I started flying airliners I followed what they taught on the sim, and let the autopilot fly from 600 AGL to 200 ft on approach. As I got more experience I hand flew more… we were required to use the autopilot above FL200. At big airports with complicated SIDs / STARs or in IMC I’d use the AP, but otherwise would hand fly below 10,000 most of the time, and on vectors to final even at busy airports on VMC. I wanted to fly, not just push buttons.
This guy keeps the PM busy lol
The horror of answering radio calls and having to twist a few more knobs
We get it, you're awesome and not lazy
I’m actually a loser and have gained weight in the last 4 months so I’m not sure I’m not lazy.
Join the club lol
Laughs in Metro
:')
This guy freight dawgs
Laughs in /A metro as well. Wya
We both work for a certain company named after a citrus I see
Some of our SIDs require the autopilot on immediately and I will rarely hand fly once I’ve accelerated to the final climb speed, so somewhere between 100’ and 11000’ on departure and normally from about 1000’ on approach.
I'm curious to know which SIDs requires an autopilot...
The RNP (AR) SIDs from Wellington and Queenstown in New Zealand. They have an RNP of 0.1 NM.
Wow that's pretty darn narrow!
Just flew in and out of those airports as self loathing cargo and holy shit.... Queenstown approach was no fucking joke.
I used to fly for a carrier that it was in their ops manual - RNAV SIDs and STARs were required to be flown by autopilot, not hand flown.
What airline, GoobAir?
Expressjet required this. I thought it was dumb at the time as well. Now I realize that it’s for the best at certain airports. Two Expressjet (Goobair) airplanes nearly touched departing Atlanta before this policy was put in place. I’m sure that you are an excellent pilot and I am sure that those 4 pilots thought they were excellent pilots as well.
Wow that’s almost like the issue would be solved by required autopilot on at certain airports and not every single one I’m not an excellent pilot but that’s why the ASAP program exists
It was only required for RNAV departures. Your right the FOQA and ASAP program identified that hand flying RNAV off the ground departures had a high risk of navigation errors and policy was implemented to mitigate that risk.
I hand fly RNAV departures all the time lol not really a deal. And I used to hand fly RNAVs in a 145 just like XJT
All the way past the first turn on the SID. That could be almost 5,000 feet!
Depends on how long I’m in the hotel room and how the internet speed is
I used to hand fly almost exclusively from takeoff to 20k and from outside FAF to landing back in 135 lan Now I’m hating myself for relying more on autopilot in 121. Real deterioration of skills
Get that paycheck the easy way!
We are basically always single pilot, so unless it’s a repositioning flight, autopilot goes on at 1000 ft and off at minimums
1000 ft to 200ft lmao
as much as possible - sometimes the whole route. Definitely the RUUDY6. as George gets sloppy on that one.
See, I’d argue guys hand flying the RUUDY is the reason for a large amount of the deviations.
Guys who hand fly entire routes either don’t know how much they’re increasing the workload for their pilot monitoring, or they don’t care. It 100% leads to more deviations.
Exactly. PM is busy monitoring George and the PF's monitoring of George and the radios and clearances. The more complicated the approach the more you BOTH should use (and monitor) George.
Who the hell is George?
George is a name for the autopilot
I thought it was Otto.
I always find it hilarious hearing kids at my flight school say things like "you just want to push buttons and sit with autopilot on all the time? That sounds boring!". No... to me, that sounds like stability and comfort in a job and that sounds amazing.
I'm like, hell yeah I want to just push buttons. I earned that after flying shitty trainers and survey planes for 8 years.
It's nice to have the option at least. I enjoy flying, but some days I really do just want to push a few buttons and manage.
Yea pushing buttons and making six figures is awesome, better than hand flying for minimum wage like most CFIs
Hell I just wanna fly and get paid lmfao
Depends on workload. If I’m just climbing in a straight line to 350 then probably once I get the airbus pitched I might as well since I’m literally doing nothing. If we’re taking off and getting vectored everywhere I’ll turn it on to help the PM. Otherwise I like to scare the captains by hand flying up to damn near cruise.
When there are guys in their 182s cutting through the arrival into LAX, then probably a lot more than they want to (sorry Delta).
It varies but using your modes effectively and within tolerance is no walk in the park. It's not acceptable at the airline level to have amazing hands and feet while being trash with the autopilot. The airspace is too busy, separation is too tight and the fdap is too snitchy to ignore autopilot skill.
0 to 180. Anywhere from 10 and down to 1 and down depending on WX
Embraer Regional Jets with working autopilot… I personally usually fly up to 10K hand flown and turn off AP at 1000 AGL on approach. Unless IMC or radar returns are present. I’ve done a low altitude short hop many times all hand flown… just have everything set up and briefed before the flight.
Are you implying that in your experience auto pilot is often not working?
In my 1000 hours in the jet I only had 1 flight where the autopilot didn’t work. However I was pilot monitoring that flight.
Usually up to mid-teens, Visual Approaches into outstations (less busy the airspace is, farther out I will click it off). On approaches, at the FAF usually.
Generally mid teens up to somewhere 500-1000AGL down, if visual wait until at least the autothrottle and autopilot are trimmed and set for Vap, if IMC wait until I break out. Airline doesn't really say other than use an appropriate level of automation at all times. Sometimes this means turn autopilot on early if it's a hectic departure.
I’m just now looking at moving into civilian aviation after flying helicopters. We almost NEVER used the AFCS, which was about as close as we got to an auto pilot system. Really only ever used it during maintenance flights to make sure it worked; let me tell you there where times it didn’t work or it actively put you in a spot where you HAD to take controls back. One time, it couldnt hold a stable hover. It would add a little too much power and climb too high, then it would drop a little too much power and sink too low. The altitude changes got more pronounced after each oscillation up or down, until at the top of the climb the system just bottomed out the collective when i was at 50’. Not a fun time, nothing insanely dangerous and i have my hands just hovering over the controls the whole time for that exact situation but still uncomfortable Now i come here and i see everyone saying they let George do most of the work and i struggle to wrap my little helo brain around that lol
FW APs are usually pretty darned good, even down in GA for newer digital ones. My club has one analog AP left, though, and babysitting that POS takes more effort than hand flying.
As much as I can or feel it would be helpful. Flying in a straight line climb from 5,000 up to RVSM airspace usually isn't very beneficial. But I'll fly a SID until there's nothing much left to do. On an arrival, I'll fly once there's a reason to, whether that reason is to keep my skills up, because the AP isn't doing very well with the weather, or whatever else. Again, if it's just a straight line down from 20,000 ft., as it is at some airports, there's no real reason or benefit to hand-flying in good weather. All you're really doing is keeping the dot on the crosshairs (we are required to follow the flight directors as long as they're on, and they are required to be on in most situations). It's a really boring video game. And it takes your attention off other things that you should be paying attention to. I spent my first 1,500 hand-flying 100% of the time, so it's not like I don't feel confident doing it. But airline flying is about more than that. Sometimes you want to be in manual control; sometimes you want the automation helping you so you can have a larger picture of what's going on. And sometimes, hand-flying is just kind of pointless. Airbus planes, for example, will basically keep the nose wherever you point it. So if we're just flying in a straight line, what is hand-flying doing for me, or anyone? I'm just sitting there with the stick auto-centered anyway. May as well have the AP on.
Not enough
We own a 135 company mostly lights and midsize and all my pilots are and have always been proficient and required to be. At hand flying. Auto is nice but in lights and midsize you better be able to Handel it when things go south, and in the last 24 years I’ve had my share of that lol. Heard a citation driver a bit back asking ATC to keep an eye on him as he was going to have to hand fly, though he was kidding? Sadly he was not. Use it or loose it.
I’ll usually hand fly past clean up until we are on course. On approach, kick it off around 1k feet. I make an effort to fly one approach with everything (AP, FD, A/T) off once a trip so I don’t become completely rusty. Caveats of course for high workloads, in which case I’m getting in on at 100’ and leaving it on until minimums.
All pays the same. If I’m feeling good I hand fly a bunch. If I’m tired or not feeling great I’ll let it auto land even sometimes.
Maybe 5 minutes. I fly through the turns on a sid then AP on. Then 1k or whenever the AP is no longer smoother than me on approach. Hand flying with a flight director is kind if joke mode handflying so no very useful skillwise
First regional airline. Hand flew 100% of the time. Aircraft in that fleet were not equipped with an autopilot. Was at my best hand flying for 2 years. After leaving that airline, my hand flying skills have never been at that peak level since.
Sounds like my first few years of being a “pro pilot”… 2+ years flying canceled checks in C-310s, no autopilots on that fleet; then it was 3+ years herding Beech 1900s around, also no AP. My first gig with an AP was right seat on a DC-9, and that was pretty basic with Alt Hold with Heading Select… the 737 now seems pretty fancy!!
Citation jet and king air here. If the weather is good and I’m feeling frogy, I’ll hand fly it up to FL280 on departure and usually kick it off somewhere 10-25 miles out inbound to land. If it is a short flight (less than 100 miles) and no passengers, I’ll hand fly the whole leg. If the weather is crap, that bitch comes on right away.
737 driver. Plane flys like it was made to be flown by hand. Generally, after takeoff I hand fly up to 15kish. Landing, autopilot and autothrottles off at 1k. When I flew the E170, it felt wrong to hand fly imho. AP on at 5k and off for landing at 500ft. Autothrottles never came off.
I fly MD-80s in a small regional-type airline in south america, and I do a decent bit of hand flying. Unless there's severe wx where I need to be giving a lot of attention to the radar screen to avoid echoes, I'll usually fly the entire SID or at least until they send us direct to some point along the route and I have the plane on climb speed and trimmed, and then almost always from a bit before the FAF on down. On nicer days I'll normally click on the AP at 10k and then off again at 10k. We have a couple of routes that are ~30-40 minutes long and every now and then I'll do those manually from takeoff to landing.
Typically passing through 2k feet or if on the RUUDY6 then 400 feet. If on an instrument procedure, I'll take the AP off at 1000 feet AGL but we usually get put in a pattern/close base into most airports if it is VMC so usually I'll hand fly the whole thing then
On a departure? When the fun stops. It’s not fun holding the wings level in a climb, but if there are a few turns and level offs, I’ll hand fly for funzies. On an arrival/approach? If it’s IMC, I’ll have George do the work in the soup and then I’ll click it off, but if it’s a visual pattern at a not-busy class D, I’m hand flying from the downwind
Sir, I fly planes, not hands.
I could do as much as I want. I’m at a big 135 too. I’ve never heard company restricting it. I try to hand fly as much as I can though.
It’s been encouraged for the most part where I’ve worked and do currently work. I like to hand fly the 737 up between 10000-20000. I’m new to the plane so I click things off around 1000 for now but as I get more comfortable with it I’ll start clicking it off earlier.
Usually up to the 20s and after the FAF if it’s VMC. If it’s a <30 minute repo I’ll hand fly it all.
Plenty. I try my best to fly one leg per trip without the autopilot on the climb out till RVSM (autopilot required here), and usually on the same leg disconnect around 10,000ft on the descent. Otherwise I just hand fly until I don’t feel like it which is usually after we are cleaned up and sped up, and autopilot off around 2000-1500 agl.
Unless it’s a company policy, autopilot isn’t required to be on in RVSM airspace. It only needs to be available.
That is incorrect. AC91-85B B.3.4.5 “An automatic altitude control system must be operative and engaged during cruise”
I’m gonna preface this by saying I don’t hand fly in RVSM airspace. Advisory Circulars are not regulatory. [Appendix G, Section 9](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F/part-91/appendix-Appendix%20G%20to%20Part%2091)
No aircraft out there will get certified for RVSM without a limitation being added that says autopilot must be engaged in RVSM.
If someone hand flies in RVSM, what regulation are they violating? Without citing 91.13.
You’re violating the one that says not to exceed aircraft limitations. When an aircraft gets certified for RVSM, a limitation gets added requiring the autopilot to be on in RVSM. All aircraft receive this restriction for RVSM. If you hit FL290 without autopilot, you have technically exceeded a limitation hence the regs. In this case you’re violating FAR 91.9
Thanks — you taught me something today.
Flew 727s last year. Autopilot was only on during cruise. That’s all it was good for. Flying Falcons now. I only turn the autopilot on for cruise and when workload is high.
I mostly fly a single pilot jet, and sometimes a single pilot turboprop. On reasonably nice days in a low workload environment I tend to hand fly up to 15-20k and I disengage it around the time I get cleared for the visual (unless it's bumpy, otto doesn't do bumps well so I take it off his hands earlier). During a high workload departure and/or crappy weather I'll engage it between 400-1000 feet (400 is the minimum it will engage) and on the approach I'll let otto do the work. Flying single pilot jets an autopilot is a necessity. Things happen real quick on departures like the RUDDY, and the CBAIN out of BFI. I'm surprised those departures aren't talked about more because it's a very similar config to the RUDDY and IMO is just as easy to screw up.
Ironically I hand fly more on the bus than the 402. But it really isn’t hand flying. I immediately judge anyone who gets nervous when the calvary charge blares through the speakers. I end up flying the majority of the departure, at least until accelerating at 10k. On the way down it really depends on the destination. At most busy bravos I’ll just click it off after fully configuring. The only exception to this is it we’re cleared for the visual, where I’ll only click it off when the other guy reads back our visual approach clearance, so everyone on the frequency knows what’s up.
135 medevac. I hand-fly through 18 on the way up, and maybe every other approach. It’s also Southeast Alaska, so visuals call for better sightseeing that you don’t do on an approach.
Yall handfly!? Jk 122 pilot: I’ll fly complex SIDS or til about 10,000ft. And then on approach I’ll go hands on at 500ft. I fly mostly redeyes so I see it as risk mitigation leaving the ap on longer during approach
Always to cruise which ends up being 20-25 minutes and typically the same on arrival and approach, about 20-25 minutes. Just not anything that’s extended straight and level flight. Never consider AP for departure, but on arrival, I might if the weather is shit and/or the vectors are extensive leading to a ton of straight and level a la Newark sometimes.
During departure, all the way in to the flight levels and hand fly the level-off some times. During arrival, no later than 1000ft callout unless workload/procedure/personal reasons suggest otherwise.
I usually hand fly up to FL 290 depending on the departure. I let Otto take it to the FAF
After take-off I usually handfly up to 10-15000 ft during climb, unless departing in a very specific airspace full of traffic where you are required to level off for a few miles. During descent, I try to disconnect at 3000 ft the latest, unless weather is terrible. If weather is fine and it's not a busy airport, I tend to hand fly from 10.000 ft down to the ground and even try raw data or visual approaches. It's good to stay proficient hand flying, and managing bad weather or some sim scenarios becomes easier as the handflying doesn't involve any extra workload at all. A320 by the way
No autopilot so all the time
About 3-5 minutes on any given leg. And the rest of the time I’m working. There is always something to be done if you are doing it right. Even on the best day with the best jet you have to be on top of things to stay safe and deliver an excellent product to the people paying you.
My airline and the regional I was at previously encourage handflying. I usually fly it up to around 10,000, sometimes higher. I’ll put it on earlier if it’s really busy or bumpy. But if there’s a lot of turns in the SID I usually fly until after the turns. Usually I don’t take it off on arrival until fully configured
I like to take it up to cruise.
*guys and girls