Originally Posted by
cbire880
To answer your question, yes I am perfectly capable of flying said arrival by hand if need be. I generally don't hand fly during the arrivals though because both pilots tend to get task saturated. The PM is often busy getting the ATIS, calling in range, briefing the pax and FAs, and loading the approach(after the third runway change of course). Our SOP does not permit the PF to manipulate the guidance panel when hand flying (doesn't mean it doesn't happen) and he can't do all of those things at the same time. I'll throw my salvo back, you fly for SkyWest, have you ever operated in the Northeast in the winter?
easy fellas. Hand flying like you both said is no big deal. i like hand flying. we have 3 modes of automation that the company likes us to be proficient in. autopilot off, fd off. autopilot off, fd on. autopilot on, fd on. if it is a nice easy day taking off out of little ole mobile, al i will sometimes take off with no fd, or autopilot and fly it to 10k or so. then get bored and turn all the stuff on so i can finish my up down words. even if the weather was bad in mobile i wouldn't have a problem flying the plane around.
but if i am taking off or landing at an airport with marginal conditions i will turn on the autopilot at 600ft or keep it on if i am coming in to land. is it because i cant fly the departure/arrival, or the approach? no. it is common courtesy to the pilot monitoring. when things get busy the last thing i want the pm to do is be listening to me tell hime to bug headings, speeds, change modes for me, or any combination of the above.
so like i said it is common courtesy and a big help in the cockpit to be SMART and THINK about when would be a good time to go raw data and fly the plane around to when it is better to have the autopilot on. just think and be courtious to the guy you are flying with.