Originally Posted by
vessbot
I would guess yes. I've heard they teach pilots how to fly in the military. In my vaunted 121 initial, I think I was only ever required to fly 2 "hand flown" approaches. (And that's with the autopilot on until on course configured, and GS intercept, and then with FD on.) And after that strongly discouraged from hand flying at every step along the way. But somehow I'm supposed to feel confident and capable of doing it. The whole thing is very bizarre.
I mean... The VNAV saves the company the most money and most of us learned how to hand fly already. You can always get a 1900 job for a couple months, after 4 months of 6-11 legs a day or so you'll be a hand flying machine. Take of leave of absense tell them you'd like to get some of those hand flying skills down. Speaking as a guy who did it, the trick isnt the hand flying its the comically fast and bizarrely methodical scan. Everything else is finger pressure and trim wheel spinning.