Scudrunners

Was thinking about the flying I did during my thirty thousand hour career and one type of flying I was really lacking time in was flying above FL180 and thus very little autopilot time.

In fact I only flew one airplane commercially that operated above FL 180, a Turbo Commander 690B which was a dream to fly.

Are there many of you out there who flew a long time and never got much autopilot time?

We are a dying breed but the vast majority of my time is hand spanking an aircraft and down to Northwestern Ontario VFR limits -- haha - Automation was eroding flying skills long before the days of FMS and GPS -- I have taught those guys IFR flying and it starts off as a very painful experience with altitude, heading and tracking excursions that would certainly cause the tearing of paper if on a ride. It always took the better part of their allotted training time to start reeling it in. Things are even getting worse. I can't believe automation is creeping into initial IFR rating. It's creating a generation of pilots afraid and horrified at single pilot IFR. I loved my single pilot IFR days and one of the finest aircraft I flew single pilot was a kingair 200, what a great IFR platform.

I know a guy with a (super?) king air 200 as his private aircraft. Nice. I have
some pictures of a 16 year old hand-flying a leg. IFR, of course. Nice kid.

I did my initial IFR back in the day, on my Maule. No autopilot. All hand-flown,
which I did single pilot in cloud with my initial group 3 rating. ADF & VOR. I
memorized the NDB 06 at CYSH. Flew it hundreds, maybe thousands of times.

The only worse IFR aircraft I can think of would be Bill Carter's Pitts S-2B. I
was never very impressed with his airshow flying, but his cross-country flights
hand-flown SPIFR with no autopilot in Pitts with no fuel, were awe-inspiring.

I only have 6500 hours but of that about 6000 are hand flown and maybe 4000 are hand flown IFR.

I only have 6500 hours but of that about 6000 are hand flown and maybe 4000 are hand flown IFR.

Excellent, your flying skills will not degrade due to monitoring the autopilot doing the flying.

Chuck Ellsworth wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 17, 2020 10:08 pm

I only have 6500 hours but of that about 6000 are hand flown and maybe 4000 are hand flown IFR.

Excellent, your flying skills will not degrade due to monitoring the autopilot doing the flying.

I’m flattered but I assure you I’m an incompetent boob. I’ve even had multiple people call me the worst.

For the first 25 years of my flying career, I flew several military aircraft sans benefit of an autopilot. Autopilots were for sissies.

Then I went corporate and very quickly realized the utility of the system. Especially single pilot operations in the NE USA. On a busy day in Boston or around New York, having an autopilot makes a large difference.

I wouldn't cancel a trip due to an inoperative A/P, but it certainly reduces the workload.

I am not suggesting that autopilots are not beneficial to flying some airplanes such as airline cat. airplanes.

My post was to remind pilots that like any endeavor such as playing golf or playing pool for instance which requires you to play the game often enough to keep your physical motor skills up to a level that allows your skills to remain high.

Flying an airplane is only difficult if you allow your skills to degrade through lack of practice.

Watching some pilots try and land in a strong cross wind is really an interesting pass time.

Not in disagreement with you, Chuck...

Not in disagreement with you, Chuck...

I know that John, my post was to remind the new pilots and low time pilots that one should fly as much as they can to remain proficient.