Originally Posted by
cbire880
I like to keep the AP on for approaches to minimums simply for the sake of the missed. The 170 is a kick in the butt during a two engine go around. Its especially fast to a low level off missed. For that reason, I like to be able to just hit the TOGA button and observe the airplane go missed while I deal with all the configuration changes that are going on. It can be done by hand and should be in VMC or during sim training, but I'd rather free up the brain bytes for the other stuff going on.
Just did my first non-autopilot missed in DEN the other day, actually...Mesa couldn't get off the runway quick enough (nose-wheel steering?), so Tower sent us packing from 200 feet. Even though it was clear and a million, I really had to convince myself to not kick into warp-speed...I was surprised at how smoothly it went - the most difficult part was remembering the call-outs LoL, and we were in the -700 and light as hell.