Bombardier Q400 operated by Colgan Air
Photo Credit: Hawaiian717.
How often do airline pilots fly the plane manually, rather than relying on autopilot and computers?
This question seems to express concerns that some airline pilots are relying too much on automation such that a few have forgotten how to fly.
Indeed, this has resulted in some pilots making wrong split-second decisions. For example, on a Colgan Air tragedy in 2009, the pilot raised the plane’s nose up instead of pushing it down to recover from a deadly stall.
In reality, airline pilots are encouraged to use the autopilot for passengers’ comfort as it also flies more accurately and saves fuel.
On Airbus planes, the autopilot is permitted to be engaged at 5 seconds or 100 feet after take-off. This is not total handover of controls to the machine because the pilots continue to manage the plane.
Some pilots may elect to delay the transition to automation at a later stage. They would continue to hand-fly the plane and take over earlier during the landing to hone their ‘stick and rudder’ skills.
After the Asiana Boeing 777 crash at San Francisco in 2013, the National Transportation Safety Board found the airline had “emphasized the full use of all automation and did not encourage manual flight.”
If the airline had allowed pilots to fly manually more often, the pilot most likely would have prevented the crash.
As such, the Federal Aviation Administration has recently advised airlines to encourage pilots to fly manually when appropriate to improve their manual skills.
At the end of 2019, all airline pilots were required to undergo additional manual flying on upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT). That was one of the specific jobs I was doing in the Airbus flight stimulator previously.
Contrary to widespread belief, pilots of current day planes are required to demonstrate their competency at manual flying every six months in a flight simulator. Failure means more retraining.
On a long-haul 13 hours flight, say from Kuala Lumpur to London, the autopilot will be on 99 percent of the time if the weather at the destination is bad and the captain needs to do an auto landing.
On short-haul domestic flights, pilots tend to fly the plane manually longer as they find more satisfaction in honing their stick and rudder skills. Some elect to fly up to 10,000 feet before engaging the auto pilot, then disengage it at10,000 feet on descent and fly the plane all the way to landing..
A pilot can hand fly the plane to the top of climb provided it is below 29000 feet. Above this altitude, use of autopilot is mandatory because of RVSM (Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum) rules.
The disadvantage of manual flying is that passengers may feel some discomfort as the pilot is not normally able to fly the plane as smooth as machine during the cruise. Now you know why manual flying is generally discouraged.
With that, I wish you all a safe and smooth flight on your next journey!
See YouTube Video Crashing Into A House – The Pilot Was Tired (Colgan Air Flight 3407) – DISASTER BREAKDOWN
here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVhc1zl8QEM
View YouTube Video ASIANA FLIGHT 214 New Video Shows Entire Crash From Tower
here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUboPQQk6r0
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