Originally Posted by
ATCsaidDoWhat
Taking a 747...or any other plane to cruise and then turning on the autopilot...or hand flying a descent...is not only easy, it's not "hard" on the other guy. And heaven forbid, it keeps your skillset sharp.
I have to respectfully disagree on this one. Hand flying up to cruise proves/provides nothing, as long as you have the FD up and running. In the departure environment, while you're playing pilot, the PM (pilot monitoring) is managing the radios, CDU, MCP and keeping more than an eye on the hand flying going on. Just my opinion.
On the classic, more than a few times, I saw guys aviating to cruise and get so slow we had to descend to get on speed. Mind you, we were hanging on the props, even if on speed, but get behind, even by a few knots and you'd never accelerate.