I have been saying this for years. I call it skills atrophy. If you don't exercise the skill set, you will lose the skill. I was a Boeing 757 instructor pilot for 17 years at a major airline. On the line and in the simulator, you could see it in their eyes when it came to disconnecting the A/P and A/T. I always felt pilots were not afraid, but reluctant to disconnect because they feared embarrassment of a demonstration of skills not practiced. It manifests itself negatively more during an emergency. They try to use the A/P when the situation demands hand flying. The other reason to disconnect is it's FUN. You have to be skilled in both autopilot usage and hand flying. That's the job! ( that includes Autothrottle)

(Written on 2019/09/27)(Permalink)