Auto pilot

On my type the earliest we can engage an autopilot is the later of 5 seconds after lift off or 100′ agl. Same applies for all engines working or in the event of an engine fire/fail.
I always chuckle when I see people thinking they are really clever ‘hand flying’ the aircraft for an age after take off when all they are doing is following the flight director bars. For me, hand flying is something I do on arrival in reasonable visual conditions on raw data (flight directors off) using basic piloting skills.

Well in regards to the G/A, i’ve only heard the AP thing from a BA 747 TC – Apparently BA came very close to loosing a 744 at LHR a few years ago, due to nearly stalling.

(They were told to G/A quite late, TOGA armed, nose rises vigorously, airspeed comes within a few knots of stalling)

There’s no SOP for engaging the autopilot, but this is usually done in the initial climb (500ft – 5000ft).

There is an SOP, and every airline will have one regarding the use of the autopilot after take off.
Ours is to engage the autopilot when we reach acceleration altitude (1,000ft aal), basically no autopilot on take off below 1000ft aal. However, tied in with this is the clause that allows us to hand fly the aircraft, if the weather is good we can hand fly it, as long as we’re not departing from a major Intl Airport like CDG we can hand fly it too. The only bad thing about hand flying it is that we are still following the flight director, and it get’s rather boring. Monkee see – Monkee do.

The autopilot is usually disconnected when landing clearance is received – as it’s safer to let the A/P do a G/A then the pilot themselves. (If you listen to a scanner at LHR, you can here all the airbus A/P’s been disconnected when the aircraft is cleared to land.

Again company SOPs will dictate this, and some will be more stringent than others, again we can hand fly the approach if we like, but only under certain conditions, i.e. no parallel approaches etc. We can conduct visual approaches too which are totally hand flown.
What we do have to do is disconnect the autopilot at 200ft ARTE on a CAT I, and 80ft ARTE on a CAT II.

You would only let the autopilot do the G/A if the G/A is in the FMS, this is not always the case, the initial part of the G/A is hand flown to at least Acceleration Altitude. Then autopilot engaged, all you are doing here is letting the AP fly the flight director, which will either take it’s information from the FMS or pilot input.

Dean

When I flew into AMS some months ago, I sat at the front of our A319! You could quite clearly hear the A/P disengage even in the cabin. It was even more interesting as we weren’t that high above the ground! 🙂

Yes that’s quite right. Numerous times I’ve heard it disengage on an Airbus, even as far back as row 7 on a 321! For those who are unsure of the meaning of the sound it could be a little unnerving.

(If you listen to a scanner at LHR, you can here all the airbus A/P’s been disconnected when the aircraft is cleared to land.

When I flew into AMS some months ago, I sat at the front of our A319! You could quite clearly hear the A/P disengage even in the cabin. It was even more interesting as we weren’t that high above the ground! 🙂

Note to Northern_Git – Apparently T7 pilot Irish Dave flies the whole journey with the autopilot disengaged.

Adam

I would imagine straight after take off it is engaged but the pilot if they wish may climb the aircraft themselves to an altitude they wish (read a few airliners net trip reports especially by Wilco737).

There’s no SOP for engaging the autopilot, but this is usually done in the initial climb (500ft – 5000ft).

The autopilot is usually disconnected when landing clearance is received – as it’s safer to let the A/P do a G/A then the pilot themselves. (If you listen to a scanner at LHR, you can here all the airbus A/P’s been disconnected when the aircraft is cleared to land.

As far as I’m aware it can be engaged when only a couple of thousand feet off the ground, although I’m sure other more knowledgable people can clarify!

Paul