When do you use autopilots?

The Visitor writes:

Do you sit there at your sim, droning along for 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 hours
enroute, handflying?

No, but I was wondering if I was "cheating" by using the autopilot.

What aircraft/route are you asking about?

At this very instant (thanks to autopilot), I'm flying VFR from KPHX
to KSAN, via GBN JUDTH MOHAK WARTT BZA ARGUS IPL NICKK KUMBA PILLO
CANNO BARET RYAHH HAILE KSAN. The GPS unit is handling the routing.
I picked 6000 feet MSL for most of the flight because the manual says
the Baron is highly efficient at this altitude; I'll go briefly to
8500 to get over the mountains on the way in to San Diego.

If this is the way real pilots use autopilot, fine. I just don't want
to do anything that would handicap me in real flight (I'm not sure how
experienced real pilots are supposed to be in hand-flying).

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Reasonable.

I must ask and encourage you to at least take a discovery flight at a
local flying school. Have you ever given it a try?




Mxsmanic wrote:
The Visitor writes:


Do you sit there at your sim, droning along for 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 hours
enroute, handflying?


No, but I was wondering if I was "cheating" by using the autopilot.


What aircraft/route are you asking about?


At this very instant (thanks to autopilot), I'm flying VFR from KPHX
to KSAN, via GBN JUDTH MOHAK WARTT BZA ARGUS IPL NICKK KUMBA PILLO
CANNO BARET RYAHH HAILE KSAN. The GPS unit is handling the routing.
I picked 6000 feet MSL for most of the flight because the manual says
the Baron is highly efficient at this altitude; I'll go briefly to
8500 to get over the mountains on the way in to San Diego.

If this is the way real pilots use autopilot, fine. I just don't want
to do anything that would handicap me in real flight (I'm not sure how
experienced real pilots are supposed to be in hand-flying).

The Visitor writes:

Reasonable.

I must ask and encourage you to at least take a discovery flight at a
local flying school. Have you ever given it a try?

No. No money and no time to try it.

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Mxsmanic wrote:

No. No money and no time to try it.

Where aare you located?

The Visitor writes:

Where aare you located?

Paris, France

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Well that explains it. Flight training is very expensive, by anybodies
standard. I have met millionaires from Monaco, in Canada, to do their
training.

Mxsmanic wrote:
The Visitor writes:


Where aare you located?


Paris, France

The,

Well that explains it.


No, it doesn't. Not by a long shot. Read some older threads with the
troll...

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

The Visitor writes:

Do you sit there at your sim, droning along for 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 hours
enroute, handflying?

No, but I was wondering if I was "cheating" by using the autopilot.

What aircraft/route are you asking about?

At this very instant (thanks to autopilot), I'm flying VFR from KPHX
to KSAN, via GBN JUDTH MOHAK WARTT BZA ARGUS IPL NICKK KUMBA PILLO
CANNO BARET RYAHH HAILE KSAN. The GPS unit is handling the routing.
I picked 6000 feet MSL for most of the flight because the manual says
the Baron is highly efficient at this altitude; I'll go briefly to
8500 to get over the mountains on the way in to San Diego.

Is this route off-airway? What is the OROCA in that area? 8500 is not an
IFR altitude, so unless you will be changing to VFR on top, you'll probably
either be at 8000 or 10000 in real life. I don't know the area well enough
to know for sure...

It sounds like you have some ideas of what it takes, but you really should
get some formal training. If you're that afraid of flying, you should at
least go to a Ground School course. They are not typically very expensive,
but they are very informative. Another alternative might be to purchase the
Gliem test prep books.

Judah writes:

Is this route off-airway?

It's a route that I concocted myself from waypoints, which I presume
means that it's not on an established airway (although some of the
waypoints are on airways).

What is the OROCA in that area?

I don't know. I don't have charts, so I guessed based on previous
flights over the area and the en route altitude recommendation of the
simulator (which presumably knows all the heights along the way).

8500 is not an IFR altitude, so unless you will be changing to
VFR on top, you'll probably either be at 8000 or 10000 in real life.

I've never been assigned an en route altitude that isn't an even
thousand by the simulated ATC, but I don't know if that's true in real
life as well. I'm sometimes assigned to the nearest hundred feet for
final descents and interception of localizers and what not.

I don't know the area well enough to know for sure...

I don't have a chart so I don't know the exact heights. I think 8000
would clear everything. The mountains east of San Diego are the
highest points, I believe.

It sounds like you have some ideas of what it takes, but you really should
get some formal training.

Flying a simulator is free and can be done on a time-available basis.
Formal training is very expensive and cannot be easily worked into a
schedule. Otherwise I might well do it, even in a place like France
where I'd be learning a lot of the wrong stuff.

If you're that afraid of flying, you should at least go to a Ground
School course. They are not typically very expensive,
but they are very informative. Another alternative might be to purchase the
Gliem test prep books.

The best I could hope for would be an occasional book. Even books are
costly.

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Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Judah writes:

8500 is not an IFR altitude, so unless you will be changing to
VFR on top, you'll probably either be at 8000 or 10000 in real life.

I've never been assigned an en route altitude that isn't an even
thousand by the simulated ATC, but I don't know if that's true in real
life as well. I'm sometimes assigned to the nearest hundred feet for
final descents and interception of localizers and what not.

No, that does not accurately reflect the standards for altitude
assignment/selection. Unless you only fly West in your sim.

The best I could hope for would be an occasional book. Even books are
costly.

I believe you can find free resources on line for flight training. Google is
a great place to start.