Simviation Forums

What Im wondering is how much do real pilots rely on auto pilot? In Flight Simulator 2004 you can pretty much fly the plane by simply turning a few nobs. Especially true in the jet aircraft where you enable the auto throttle and control air speed. And landings when activating the approach to an ILS runway couldn't be easier. The plane gets itseld down. Do real pilots fly this way or do they do most of the stuff manually? I feel like I'm cheating by using the auto pilot.

Good subject.
Regardless what other people say.
Pilots ALWAYS flies the airplane, but that does not necessarily mean handflying.
Setting up the autopilot right is an art. Don't be fooled by the "dumbed down" autopilot in FS, in real world it is a bit harder. Why do you think they need all that training? An aircaft can be flown in many different ways, the hard thing is to figure out which mode is best suitable at the moment. Some arrivals are better off flying in Heading select rather than lnav.

When to engage the autopilot is at the pilot's discretion. Takeoffs are never automated, they have to be flown manually, but all other phases of the flight can be managed by the autopilot.

When climbing thru 10.000ft, I'd say 99.9% of all airliners are flown in LNAV and VNAV (or corresponding autoflight modes) in conjunction with autothrottle.
This ensures that the flight is flown in an economical manner (all the speeds and climb profiles are calculated by the FMC unless you manually put in some restrictions)
Nowadays pilots are more of a system monitor, their destiny is linked through the FMC, the very heart of the aircraft. The purpose of the autopilot is to reduce the workload, less fatigue pilots are always better, and that is very crucial in tight airspace, an error there can lead to fatal disasters.
I will quote myself from another thread : Automated flight should be a supplement to the pilots, not a substitute.  

So NO, you are not cheating  ;)

Thanks for the info Nexus. How is the auto pilot more difficult in a real aircraft? I've heard before what you mentioned about most aspects of the flight being preset to maximize fuel efficiency, reduce pilot fatigue etc. I've basically been flying the way you described. I take the plane down the runway and lift off "manually", then as I get into a good climb and approach my cruising altitude, I start dialing in my autopilot settings and activate it. Regarding the landings, do real commercial pilots landing a Boeing into Dulle airport use APP to capture the glideslipe and take the plane down, or is that hand flown?

Okay, I'll give you every function of the 737NG autopilot. The Flight mode announciations are displayed on the PFD.

We start off with Autothrottle modes:

N1
GA
RETARD
FMC SPD
MCP SPD (Mach or KIAS)
THR HOLD
ARM (displayed in white color)

Next we have pitch modes:
TO/GA
ALT ACQ
ALT HOLD
VNAV PTH
VNAV SPD
VNAV ALT
MCP SPD (pitch mode in LVL CHG)
G/S
FLARE
V/S

Roll modes
HDG SEL
LNAV
VORLOC

A/P status:
[glb]
CWS R
CWS P [/glb]CMD
FD


Here's a good picture of a real 737 MCP panel
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/597933/L

Granted all functions are not available during every stage of the flight of course, but still, you have some options to choose from here. And keep in mind that FS has left out half of the autopilot managing by leaving out the FMC. Many parameters are set in the flight management computer.

It's up to the pilot flying if he wants to do an autoland, but if weather is fine they usually land manually, but loc capture is often done in autoflight, then they simply disengage the autopilot and fly it manually from there.

The thing I don't understand about most boeing planes is how to use the autopilot...for example in any of the PSS Airbus's...(A319,A330,A340..and so on)...the autopilot is v. simple..I takeoff press managed mode set a hieght..and so forth...but anyways with most Boeings I don't understandwhen I take off do I immediatly press LNAV and VNAV or do I dod something else also I seen pilot putting in a speed for example after departure they put in 180...can't I just put it in managed mode...or is there no managed mode...if not how do i know what speed sto climb at or do I look in the FMC...also when climbing the pilots don't have ----- across the V/S..they have a  number like -1800...can someone describe how to use the Auropilot of the Boeings???

Boeing has it's own takeoff mode, called TO/GA.

Before doing any of this, make sure both engine generators are turned ON (A/T wont work unless), and OAT is entered in the FMC. FD switch should be ON and A/T armed.


You engage the takeoff mode during take off roll,

I think it would depend on the type of flying the pilot is doing. The guys who fly the big airliners use the AP a lot. Of course like Nexus said they don't rely on it, they use it. You have to remember however that this is a minority of pilots. Not a lot of pilots have those cushy airline jobs.  ;D Many are flying older airplanes without APs.

When I had my PPL (70s-80s) an AP was almost unheard of except on a commercial jet (the things cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, almost as much as some airplanes). Nowadays however they are beginning to make it into some of the high end GA aircraft but never will you see a pilot replaced by one (at least I hope not).

Probably the way you are doing is correct. Manual take off and then let the AP handle the aircraft once clean and well established in a climb. As you approach you may want to let the AP take you right down the glide slope and take over the flair and landing at the last minute. The whole point however is that the pilot always stays in the loop and ready to take over the instant something doesn't seem right. There are certain circumstances you might want to vary this like certain weather conditions but mostly what you are doing seems about right.

A very interesting post =- thanks guys.........

Yeah, there are many ways to get from the ground to cruise level in an airliner. Just like everything in life, pilots have their own "preferable" ways of doing it, some handflies the bird right up to 10k, while other engages AP at 1k.

I tried to fly in CWS (which holds the bank and pitch angles for you, kinda like fly by wire) but it felt awkward for me. However it gets you from point A to B just as good as anything else.

To quote a famous singer  "I did it my waaaay"  :)