You should really, REALLY check out FS2Crew...!!!

I have it and I love! It's the most realistic experience out there!

Hi Guys,

 

Flying the jet by hand is not as unrealistic in the real world as you may think. Sure there are some airlines whose SOP's don't alow much handflying but equally there are airlines that allow and encourage handflying.

 

Many crashes that have occurred over the last few years have been down to crew error, and there is a debate over the fact that modern pilots are loosing the handflying skills that are considered so important, especially when things go wrong quickly in flight (Airfrance A330, Turkish B738 in AMS are just two examples off the top of my head)..

 

I have read articles from real world airline pilots who will fly a 1 hr sector with no autothrottle/autopilot or FD. Completely flying by hand using raw data. This is purely to keep their motor skills uptodate. Obviously you would not do this longhaul as it would be too tiring, or in RVSM airspace as it is a requirement to have autopilot engaged as it is more accurate than a human. Also in busy airspace it would not be the best idea. But on a quite, short sector it's a great idea.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

The bean counters took over airlines long ago. Pilots are frowned upon if they don't use LNAV and VNAV all the time because it's much more economical than a human. In FSX I hand fly up to at least 10,000. And on approach around glideslope intercept.

Hand fly all the time. I always thought that littly gismo to my lower right was just a fancy calculator!

I handfly it once a week, with really bad weather, raw data, SID to FL200ish, then reposition on the map, 120 nm out at FL360ish, STAR, maybe an holding, NDB or VOR app down to minimums usually with strong X-winds & sometimes emergency's ie. eng fail's. Only use the FMC for V-speeds.

I do the same with other steam gauge airplanes like the Coolsky DC-9 or GA's...all this to keep my IFR skills sharp for my rw licence.

Since I stepped over to propliners, I handfly a lot, only on long cruise >1hr, I use the ap alt hold.

I have been in numerous jumpseats where lnav and vnav were engaged but the pilot was handflying using the flight director to the up to around fl240.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one I agree that on really long flights the AP is really useful. Hand flying from runway to some set altitude and keeping within the required altitude and speed limits, then hand flying it back down to the ground adds more fun than just sitting watching the plane do it all.

 

The points above do raise some interesting questions regarding what happens in real life though. Although I'm not qualified to comment, it seems to me that like most safety issues they are made up of two main sections. One is common sense, and the second is learning from experience.

 

I can understand that other considerations like economics also influence the SOP's companies enforce and i suggest that when economics are in the equation they can sometimes influence other factors.

 

I find it puzzling that maybe not all RW pilots are encouraged to do more hands on flying in the right circumstances of course. Simulators are useful for simulating many things and you can't substitute the real item sometimes. Just as flying the switches takes practice so does flying without them or am I missing a point somewhere?

Hand flying is realistic, according to the FAA.

 

http://m.thestar.com/?content=03e3f3b57e9682bf32747a0d3476d705&section=news

 

 

Sent from my iPhone...typing errors imminent

Just for a laugh go to PPrune and read the thread "FAA concerned about increase in manual handling errors"; you'll find it in the rumour and news section. The arguably excess use of automation by commercial line pilots (either by company enforcement or through possible deteriorating pilot standards) and degradation of hand flying skills is a major topic of debate.

It wouldn't surprise if some "flight simmers" have got better hand/ instrument flying skills than some commercial pilots sitting up the sharp end.

 

TIM

One of the coolest things I have seen on a WAR DVD is the Air Atlanta Icelandic 744F flight ELLX-WSSS. The female F/O hand flies it through the departure and you would swear she was letting George do the flying. Was great to watch (even the Captain comments on it).

I have a dodgy back, can't sit down for ages. So for me, AP is on as soon as poss, and hand fly the approach.