Originally Posted by
80ktsClamp
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.
I'm not going to repost the article due to copyright issues, but the portion where I said "the autopilot and autothrottles keep the plane right on course, flying more smoothly than I am able" was primarily talking about the E175's advanced automation. It was really a comment on the airplane, not on my skills or regional pilot skills in general. It is a FAR smoother autopilot than the Q400s (which granted isn't saying much), and from what I've observed of various Boeing and Airbus products from the jumpseat, I'd say it's smoother than most of those airplanes' autopilots.
The funny thing is, the very next comment in the article was that the automation doesn't do a very good job of keeping the pilots engaged, and talking about one of my strategies to maintain situational/positional awareness considering that fact. But based on one half-sentence out of several paragraphs, ShyGuy's takeaway is that I'm dogging regional pilots' handflying skills.