Originally Posted by N271FE

A Pinnacle CA friend was recently suspended for 2 weeks without pay for refusing an airplane without an autopilot. Contributing factors to the decision were:
-No autopilot, scheduled block just over 2 hours (SO WHAT?)
-Scheduled departure 10:16pm (MAKES IT EASIER...NO-ONE ON THE RADIO)
-Destination wx 600 OVC, RA, winds gusting 25kts, 60 degrees of crosswind (SO WHAT? WOULD THIS NORMALLY STOP YOU?)
-Line of thunderstorms between origination and destination (I CAN SEE THIS BEING AN ISSUE, BECAUSE OF THE ALTITUDE LIMITATION OF NO AUTOPILOT, BUT HEY YOU HAVE A PRETTY NICE RADAR IN THAT RJ)
The CA refused the flight in the interest of safety with regard to enroute and destination weather, and was immediately removed from the flight and replaced with a reserve CA. Pinnacle didn’t have any spare planes to swap to, so scheduling simply replaced the crew. The reserve CA also initially refused the flight, but ultimately ended up going after a lengthy delay during which time most of the enroute and destination wx had cleared.
I simply cannot fathom how Pinnacle can completely ignore FAR 91.3, "Responsibility and authority of the pilot in command" and penalize the CA for the decision that was made.