Bored and no one has posted in here for a bit...

[CaldRail]

Fodda - You win the prize for the most interesting aircraft pictured. Wonder who the passenger was? Hmmm....

Everyone else - Junk the jetliners guys. Fly something with real character. Autopilots are for cissies

[Speedbird083]

Autopilots are for cissies

You've clearly not tried to tame the CS-707 and its AP .

[TGVDuplex]

I merged the PSS panel with the POSKY plane.

[philbozz]

The ERJ is pretty much like the CRJ and 146 - no speed hold..apart from the 'Speed Hold' climb mode...

Manual throttles all the way...and I can't see the OBS "butterfly" on the ND either so im flying visual app's all the time :S

[Redbaron]

Autopilots are for cissies

You've clearly not tried to tame the CS-707 and its AP .

Or the 727 pro's AP - the altitude hold has a horrible habit of not working whenever you need it most.

[Fodda]

Well I wouldn't ferry around a certain fascist dictater if that's what you mean CaldRail.

I like to think that I was taking a bunch of military dissidents to a certain bierkeller in Munich for a meeting that might have changed history...

[CaldRail]

Wouldn't a Vulcan bomber be better suited for that purpose?

I still say junk the jetliners. Boring boring boring dull dull oh god not another atlantic crossing and not one stewardess under 50 years old....

Forget the autopilot and fly the darn thing. Its more fun. I just can't see the point of sitting with cups of coffee for eight hours and thinking you've acheived something. Traditional skills are always the last call any pilot can make. I once flew a Cessna 150 from Thruxton and had an airspeed indicator fail in flight. Think about that. There was no ATC or autopilot to get me down. Just me and you Charlie Delta.

There was of course a happy ending. Pilot, plane, & passenger all down in one piece. It doesn't sound serious, but what are the consequences if you don't know how fast your're flying? Too slow and theres a smoking hole short of the runway. Too fast and you use the arrestor trees at the other end.

Practise the skills. Could save your life and someone elses one day.

[Speedbird083]

Forget the autopilot and fly the darn thing. Its more fun.

I think some of us find the adherence to procedures, accurate flight and fuel planning, weights etc. quite appealing.
You understand we're not talking default GPS or that awful MS flight planner, yes?

[TGVDuplex]

I love to get into all the procedures of the large Airbus on approach, and landing. My fav, however, is the ATR72 from Flight1. It's a turbo prop, so it has an AP, but not everything is controlled by it. I always handfly the approach and landing, just to make sure that my skills are still as good as always! :0

[markw]

I used to manually fly but now pretty much fly on ILS all the time. I find the latter much more fun - it is a game after all - and given I tend to fly British Classic aircraft believe me you have to have your wits about you trying to get a Trident airborne or to land without stalling - more than once I've fogotten myself and retracted the slats below 225kts, and stalled it as happened in real life in Staines in 1972. Also, trying to partly manually fly the Vickers Viking whilst attempting an ILS approach using the very basic and primative autopilot is great fun - the autopilot on the Viking is a basic hold your current position thing, so you have to do the changes in direction and height manually. Again, pretty much as it would have been for the last few flying in the 1960's as airports introduced controlled approaches.

In any case, it's a game, so if people prefer to sit back on autopilot in a Scarebus or Boring 7-yawn-7, then that's their prerogative. I do sometimes, hence my repaint of the 735. It's quite fun to swap and change from a Boston-Dublin A330 to piloting a 1-11 from Dublin to Norwich. or a Viking from Dublin to Blackpool.

[TGVDuplex]

I watched a show yesterday on the BAC111 that had the captain side windshield blow out. He survived. Perhaps you guys have heard of it?

[CaldRail]

Saw a clip of that. Yikes

All I've ever suffered is a couple of gauge failures, a cold draught up my trouser leg, and a Southampton air traffic controller who doesn't understand VFR.

Puts things in perspective eh?

[Fodda]

If it's going to be jetliners, then they have to have some class, and preferably not made in the USA... Here's the sort of thing I mean...

And try saying that flying this across the Atlantic is boring.

[CaldRail]

Forget the autopilot and fly the darn thing. Its more fun.

I think some of us find the adherence to procedures, accurate flight and fuel planning, weights etc. quite appealing.
You understand we're not talking default GPS or that awful MS flight planner, yes?

Procedures are part of flying these days, its unavoidable. I think it goes a bit over top sometimes though even allowing for safety. You're quite right, flight planning is very important, and knowing exactly how much fuel you have is absolutely vital even on a simple pleasure flight. Once you run out your options begin to vanish. And the CAA take a dim view of any pilot who runs out of fuel - as you will likely face a magistrate for doing so.

I agree about that MS GPS. AAAAARRGH! Its worse than using a real one. Please, Microsoft, put the option to access the facilities database back on the menu. Please. Pretty please. With bells on. And sugar on top.

And you still haven't sorted out stalls and spins I notice....

[Speedbird083]

Got bored while my Dad stole my router.
Treated myself to the Justflight Spitfire package.





Not bad but when you consider you can get this



Seafire for free, even the £17.99 I paid seems a bit much - let alone the top whack £29.99 rrp.