Hi all,

 

So far I took-off and switched the A/P passing 1 000 ft or so and I used autoland. I must confess that one of the reason is that I enjoy watching the aircraft from external view during take-off and landing.

 

Now I want to be closer to reality and I would like to handfly the T7.

 

At which 'precise' moment should I:

 

1) Switch to A/P after take-off?

 

2) Disconnect A/P before landing?

 

Thanks for your recommandations.

I love hand flying the aircraft, especially the 777. On departure, I always hand fly it up to 20,000ft before flicking on the AP. On the descent, I usually take manaul control of the aircraft at around 5,000 feet or before the final turn onto final approach.

So far I took-off and switched the A/P passing 1 000 ft or so and I used autoland. I must confess that one of the reason is that I enjoy watching the aircraft from external view during take-off and landing.

 

 

 

Now I want to be closer to reality and I would like to handfly the T7.

 

 

 

At which 'precise' moment should I:

 

 

 

1) Switch to A/P after take-off?

 

 

 

2) Disconnect A/P before landing?

 

 

 

Thanks for your recommandations.

 

 

Hi, Tony,

 

On landing, w/out an ILS, or when you receive a "no autoland message," you would be required to do a manual landing, but autothrottle on.  Of course you can also do a manual ILS landing (leave autothrottle on).

 

On takeoff you can arm LNAV & VNAV but not turn on the autopilot, and hand fly using the Flight Director (autothrottle should be on and will take care of thrust modes).

 

Mike

I usually hand-fly takeoff to 10,000 feet and then hand-fly the arrival once I'm established on final if there is ATC (on vatsim) and usually I'll hand-fly whenever I feel like it if there is no ATC because if there's ATC I'm getting commands all the way down and don't have someone to write it down for me so trying to listen, read-back and execute commands is a little hard while trying to hand-fly.

Since I don't have a copilot helping me out, I usually activate the auto pilot after takeoff, but disable it before capturing the localizer on approach unless the weather is really bad. It's too hard switching frequencies and doing the checklist while also flying.

Hi all,

 

So far I took-off and switched the A/P passing 1 000 ft or so and I used autoland. I must confess that one of the reason is that I enjoy watching the aircraft from external view during take-off and landing.

 

Now I want to be closer to reality and I would like to handfly the T7.

 

At which 'precise' moment should I:

 

1) Switch to A/P after take-off?

 

2) Disconnect A/P before landing?

 

Thanks for your recommandations.

 

Theirs no 'precise moment'  You engage or disengage when you are comfortable or your workload permits.  It really is that simple.  Most guy's I know will start hand flying at 1000ft, the main reason is to avoid the hassle of getting busted by the QAR 

It depends on workload and company SOP's, some guys I know start hand flying about 15-20 miles out and as for takeoff there are a few pilots within my airline who like to handfly all the way into the FL200 range and the company encourages that.

Hi, Tony,

 

On landing, w/out an ILS, or when you receive a "no autoland message," you would be required to do a manual landing, but autothrottle on.  Of course you can also do a manual ILS landing (leave autothrottle on).

 

On takeoff you can arm LNAV & VNAV but not turn on the autopilot, and hand fly using the Flight Director (autothrottle should be on and will take care of thrust modes).

 

Mike

 

Mike I was trying an lnav & vnav flight and it was not adhering to the speeds an altitude in the fmc (this was cs777) I put on AP was this why it was not working ? thank you

Mike I was trying an lnav & vnav flight and it was not adhering to the speeds an altitude in the fmc (this was cs777) I put on AP was this why it was not working ? thank you

 

Why are you asking about the CS777 in a PMDG forum?

Ah a 777 is a 777 who ever makes it - just an operations general question 

 

By the way stupid question on my part as of course the AP needs to be turned on must be an error in my fmc programming 

Ah a 777 is a 777 who ever makes it - just an operations general question 

I could see why he asked that question. Depending on how one read the question, if he thought it was a question regarding a bug in the aircraft, PMDG wouldn't be able to do much in regards to the CS 777. I personally had to read the question a couple times before I finally figured out what was going on.

I could see why he asked that question. Depending on how one read the question, if he thought it was a question regarding a bug in the aircraft, PMDG wouldn't be able to do much in regards to the CS 777. I personally had to read the question a couple times before I finally figured out what was going on.

 

 

Yup that makes sense - thanks

1. When you feel like it
2. When you're thinking "what the [you know...] is it doing?"

I fly it like I stole it :lol:

1: When you have to (No Autoland on NPA's)
2: When you want to.

 

Obviously you can't use the Autopilot to do things that the Autopilot can't do.

Obviously you should turn the Autopilot off when it does something you don't want it to do.

If you are handflying, you should obviously be looking at your attitude, speed, altitude etc.