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Reading about the BA accident at Heathrow, the aircraft was on a coupled approach with the autopilot flying and handling the throttles. Is this airline policy Or can you still hand fly an approach if the weather is reasonable?
August 8. 2009 19:05
I am not sure about BA's SOP but as for us here at Emirates the policy is to use the maximum use of automation (that is A/P and A/T). We cannot just hand fly an approach just for the sake of practice or fun anymore. The only hand flying that I do is rotation up to gear retraction, and on the other side few hundred feet above the minimum, if I am landing after a 15 hours flight I will even push it even more and disconnect the auto pilot at minimum but keeping the A/T all the to flare. Yup, we are not pilots anymore. I think the last time I trimmed an airplane was about 10 years ago.
Kambiz Pourghanad (Airline Transport)
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