Ever screw up an approach?

[starchkr]

I would rather hand fly in IMC than have to rely on a piece of equipment that may be not working correctly. Just remember, that autopilot will only do what you tell it to do, if you program it wrong or ask it to do the wrong thing...you will find those "boulder filled clouds" just as fast as hand flying the thing. Actually, i will only use the autopilot during approaches in training so that i can keep the currency going for using the thing on my airman letter...other than that, it is for cruise and some of the descent only (i love hand flying in IMC, especially low approaches). I love hand flying in IMC, it gives me a better feel of what the a/c is doing versus letting the a/p fly it to say 500' agl and then taking over not knowing what the heck the plane is going to do when i take over. I have had autopilots give me the controls completely out of wack with a lot of force required to correct and retrim what it put in while flying...I was very glad i didn't take over that night while shooting an ILS to mins and finding out at 300' agl that the plane wants to go into a very steep bank and nose down attitutde.

Just my thoughts on it though.

 

[User546]

"I came back around and used the autopilot to shoot the approach and handflew it uneventfully the last couple miles inbound."

Out of curiosity, why wouldn't you have done that the first time?

Typically I do.

However, I'll typically make it a point to handfly atleast one out of every four or five approaches just to keep "the touch."

95% of my flying is done in a jet with an an all glass cockpit. So anytime I get into a turboprop or piston airplane with hard ball gauges, I like to handfly approaches so that my scan doesn't get too rusty.

 

[Moonfly201]

Back in the late 80's I was flying a lot of single pilot IFR with one VOR/ILS, a DME, a loran and a wing-leveler in an old Mooney that had the car-jack type hand-pump flap actuator handle sticking out of the bottom of the panel. Every now and then, instead of the usual 3 or 4 pumps to get full flaps down, it took 15 or 20 pumps. Maybe dirt in the valve or something, but it was intermittent and I was slow to get it fixed.

Back at home base the only ILS lands to the northeast, but when the weather is low the winds are generally strong out of the south or southwest until a few hundred feet above DH. So, late one night I'm returning home in some miserable weather, and was usual I'm fighting to stay on the localizer with multiple wind shifts on the way down, with a ripping tailwind and the DME showing 140kts.

About 500' above DH I reduce the power and start pumping the flaps, and of course I feel no resistance as the valve (Murphy's law) picks that instant not to work. About then I hit some turbulence as the tailwind switches to a gusting crosswind and the runway appears about 100' above DH. I'm positioned high, and still fast, but I'm back to idle power and trimming missing a third hand to get at least partial flaps down. My plate was full.

No way I want to go back up into the soup, so of course I figure just slip it in and land ... which I do. Unfortunately, the runway is sailing by, and I manage to touch down as the red runway end lights begin. As I brake the plane hydroplanes, so I pump them like a car on ice and come to a stop right at the end.

The guy in the Tower asks, "not counting the landing ... how was the rest of the flight?"

 

[JimG]

I would rather hand fly in IMC than have to rely on a piece of equipment that may be not working correctly. Just remember, that autopilot will only do what you tell it to do, if you program it wrong or ask it to do the wrong thing...you will find those "boulder filled clouds" just as fast as hand flying the thing. Actually, i will only use the autopilot during approaches in training so that i can keep the currency going for using the thing on my airman letter...other than that, it is for cruise and some of the descent only (i love hand flying in IMC, especially low approaches). I love hand flying in IMC, it gives me a better feel of what the a/c is doing versus letting the a/p fly it to say 500' agl and then taking over not knowing what the heck the plane is going to do when i take over. I have had autopilots give me the controls completely out of wack with a lot of force required to correct and retrim what it put in while flying...I was very glad i didn't take over that night while shooting an ILS to mins and finding out at 300' agl that the plane wants to go into a very steep bank and nose down attitutde.

Just my thoughts on it though.

Thanks for the input.

I've never felt comfortable letting the autopilot fly the whole approach for those reasons, which is why I wrote that I use the heading bug... to maintain course and wings level.

I'm manually adjusting pitch and power.

In essence, I'm still flying the approach, but it's like having another pilot help with the workload.

I've got one of the best autopilot's (came with it) you can buy, but I still look at it with a little bit of suspicion.