Originally Posted by
450knotOffice
As for his statement about the AP flying better than we can? I'm a guy who flies all takeoffs up to maybe 15,000 feet and 320 KIAS and pointed where we're going. I hand fly most, if not all approaches - day, night, good weather, and bad. I pride myself on my hand flying skills (Damn it, I BETTER know how to fly an airplane well), but c'mon! I'm the first to admit that any modern AP can embarrass my own hand flying skills. Any of you out there who say otherwise are simply kidding yourselves.
When I was on the CRJ, I hand flew the airplane a lot- much of the time without the FD. I could out fly the autopilot on smoothness and accuracy all day and every day. The sim was even easier... steep turns with less than 10 foot altitude deviation? No problem.
My skillz have dissipated since then, but I'm still definitely smoother than George (now Gaston). The AP should be utilized as a workload reliever, not a crutch for lack of ability to accurately control the airplane.