auto pilot v hand fly

[a[_3_]]

A recent post regarding technology made me curious about something

The question for other pilots: on a 3 or 5 hour XC, do you let the
transistors do the work, or do you mostly fly the airplane from
"Clear" up to idle cut off?

.. I'm guessing that 80% of the time I'm doing a cross country I
carefully trim the airplane and hand fly it -- bits of pushing and
pulling, twisting and turning, to keep the airplane from meandering
too far off course. the autopilot actually flies better than I do -- I
suspect that's true for most of us, I'm guessing the RMS error of the
a/p's course error is a degree or so and it mostly keeps the needles
centered on an ILS: it pays better attention than I do. Never the
less, I like manual controlling the airplane and mostly do that..

What do YOU do?

[A Lieberman[_3_]]

On Jun 4, 3:22*pm, a > wrote:
> A recent post regarding technology made me curious about something
>
> The question for other pilots: on a 3 or 5 hour XC, do you let the
> transistors do the work, or do you mostly fly the airplane from
> "Clear" up to idle cut off?
>
> . I'm guessing that 80% of the time I'm doing a cross country I
> carefully trim the airplane and hand fly it -- bits of pushing and
> pulling, twisting and turning, to keep the airplane from meandering
> too far off course. the autopilot actually flies better than I do -- I
> suspect that's true for most of us, I'm guessing the RMS error of the
> a/p's course error is a degree or so and it mostly keeps the needles
> centered on an ILS: it pays better attention than I do. Never the
> less, I like manual controlling the airplane *and mostly do that..
>
> What do YOU do?

Hand fly. I'd fall asleep if I used autopilot. Autopilot in my now
sold Sundowner was inop so I didn't have a choice. :-)

Plus I like NOT being a passenger and working the plane even in solid
IMC.

[Dudley Henriques[_2_]]

On Jun 4, 4:22*pm, a > wrote:
> A recent post regarding technology made me curious about something
>
> The question for other pilots: on a 3 or 5 hour XC, do you let the
> transistors do the work, or do you mostly fly the airplane from
> "Clear" up to idle cut off?
>
> . I'm guessing that 80% of the time I'm doing a cross country I
> carefully trim the airplane and hand fly it -- bits of pushing and
> pulling, twisting and turning, to keep the airplane from meandering
> too far off course. the autopilot actually flies better than I do -- I
> suspect that's true for most of us, I'm guessing the RMS error of the
> a/p's course error is a degree or so and it mostly keeps the needles
> centered on an ILS: it pays better attention than I do. Never the
> less, I like manual controlling the airplane *and mostly do that..
>
> What do YOU do?

My personal method on long x countries was to trim out for the power
setting then fly the airplane on the long stretches using rudder and
the pitch trim referencing the altimeter.
On some vintage fighters like the P51, I'd do as above then rest my
left hand on the elevator trim wheel and make gentle and subtle
corrections while holding the stick with my legs.
These techniques worked like a charm for me.
DH

[Private]

Greetings Dudley, glad to see you are still here.

"Dudley Henriques" > wrote in message
...
snip

[Bob Noel[_6_]]

In article
>,
a > wrote:

> A recent post regarding technology made me curious about something
>
> The question for other pilots: on a 3 or 5 hour XC, do you let the
> transistors do the work, or do you mostly fly the airplane from
> "Clear" up to idle cut off?
>
[snip]>
> What do YOU do?

IFR - I tend to utilize the autopilot. My 140 is a little
sensitive in roll.

VFR - about 50/50 autopilot/hand fly on the cruise portions.

[Dudley Henriques[_2_]]

On Jun 4, 10:28*pm, "Private" > wrote:
> Greetings Dudley, glad to see you are still here.
>
> "Dudley Henriques" > wrote in message
>
> ...
> snip

Thanks. Appreciate the thought.

[a[_3_]]

On Jun 4, 10:28*pm, "Private" > wrote:
> Greetings Dudley, glad to see you are still here.
>
> "Dudley Henriques" > wrote in message
>
> ...
> snip

The yoke mounted trim switch under my left thumb is how I trim for
altitude: I set up cruise power, usually reducing throttle from
whatever I was using for climb when I'm at about the expected
airspeed, and get the nose where I want it with trim. There are times
(not often) when the altimeter acts like the needle is painted on, but
mostly it takes a while to keep it stable where I want it, typically
assigned altitude less 50 feet. An interesting thing I have not really
figured out is that from both wings full to one wing half full (I burn
15ish gallons from my take off tank which holds 33 gallons the
airplane does not take on a serious deviation from wings level. That's
a bunch of foot pounds of moment change, but there it is. Earlier on
before my "take half of one wing,then most of the other, and after
that no matter what land" fuel management plan I'd try an hour out of
the first tank (maybe 10 gallons the way I fly), two hours from the
second, then back to the first to almost dry before landing for fuel.
I rarely plan on more than a 4 hour leg on a long trip even in CAVU
VFR.

There are lots of ways of dealing with long flights - the notion of
pre programming everything and then sitting back and watching the
airplane fly has no appeal to me. Others I am sure feel differently.

[Stealth Pilot[_2_]]

On Sat, 5 Jun 2010 19:33:32 -0700 (PDT), a > wrote:

> An interesting thing I have not really
>figured out is that from both wings full to one wing half full (I burn
>15ish gallons from my take off tank which holds 33 gallons the
>airplane does not take on a serious deviation from wings level. That's
>a bunch of foot pounds of moment change, but there it is.

the weight of 15 gallons compared to the weight of your aircraft isnt
much.

dihedral is the answer to the puzzlement. it changes the length of
your wings to compensate.

Stealth Pilot

[VOR-DME]

In article
>,
says...
>
>
>A recent post regarding technology made me curious about something
>
>The question for other pilots: on a 3 or 5 hour XC, do you let the
>transistors do the work, or do you mostly fly the airplane from
>"Clear" up to idle cut off?
>
>. I'm guessing that 80% of the time I'm doing a cross country I
>carefully trim the airplane and hand fly it -- bits of pushing and
>pulling, twisting and turning, to keep the airplane from meandering
>too far off course. the autopilot actually flies better than I do -- I
>suspect that's true for most of us, I'm guessing the RMS error of the
>a/p's course error is a degree or so and it mostly keeps the needles
>centered on an ILS: it pays better attention than I do. Never the
>less, I like manual controlling the airplane and mostly do that..
>
>What do YOU do?

Did all my IR training hand-flying, and do recurrent training the same
way, however single-piilot IFR I feel it is important to use the
autopilot, particularly on longer trips (because you will fly to a
better standard) or in locations like the East coast where you are
likely to get a lot of routing changes. If I do hand fly, then I am
mentally prepared to go into AP mode at any time iif something comes
along to iincrease workload.

For me, AP use does not induce boredom, nor does it reduce the sense of
accomplishment in completing a flight IFR uneventfully.

[slartibartfast]

On long x-countries, and especially in IFR, I fly AP. The one in the
172SP from the flight school usually works well, tho it has been known
to act up - inducing a roll for no apparent reason. So I always keep
an eye on the AH and TC to make sure nothing untoward is going on.

East coast flight, like another poster said, especially single pilot,
AP comes in very handy. I fly in and out of NYC airspace, and coming
in during a heavy push, single pilot IFR, I don't care if it's CAVU,
the AP is on the whole time til I'm cleared for the approach. You
don't have time to be distracted by anything when the freq is that
jammed up, and unless it's an emergency, ATC doesn't want you doing
anything they're not expecting... otherwise expect to get booted out
of the Bravo pronto.