At NWA back in the 90s we were encouraged to keep up our hand flying proficiency, but a lot of guys would put on the AP at 200 feet and not turn it back off till 200' at the destination. I loved hand flying the A320. With that auto trim it was so easy. My previous Air Force experience in the F111D had taught me that the magic was most likely to fail on the proverbial dark/stormy night. About every third or fourth flight, I would hand fly it to level off, then kick off the AP, FD, and auto throttles at the start of descent from cruise and fly it like the DC9. That forced me to know the power settings and pitch attitudes for all regimes of flight (turned out the power settings were about 5% less N1 than those for the 9), as well as manually calculating the TOD and descent rate to make altitude restrictions. The A320 was definitely the easiest airplane I've ever flown to consistently get greased on landings, but you had to stay proficient at hand flying. As an aside, NWA Airbus 330s had several of the frozen pitot tube events that led to the demise of the Air France flight, but our crews simply turned off the magic and flew attitude and power until the ice melted.
Airbus Captain, YYZ. I hand fly all the time. I'm a pilot right? Pilots fly. The airline wants you- essentially- to not screw up. The guidance in the SOP is there to, if you look at it cynically, protect their butts if you screw up. "Hey we said use all appropriate automation, what else can we do?!" Brief what you're doing, use the automation when required. If you find yourself nervous to fly without automation, your gut is telling you that you need practice. Don't fall down the decade-long hole that some have of hand flying less and less each year until yeah, you're nervous without it! Terrible. So while every SOP almost seems to discourage manual flying (implicitly, by encouraging use of automation), it is your responsibility as an ATPL to make sure your skills are there when you need them. And we never know when that may be.
So there are competing interests in this whole discussion; the airline, which owns the aircraft, wants maximum efficiency, safety, and minimal liability. And the pilot, who is required to adhere to the SOP as a condition of employment, but who also has a sort of duty of care to the public, insofar as making sure he or she is personally proficient and capable of handling 'anything' that might happen, inside the SOP and out.
Meh. Or just fly somewhere where typhoon season mandates hand-flying pretty every much every approach for several months every year. No choice then and nothing to defend or explain. Do it yourself, or it doesn't get done.
Automation is a valuable tool, but it has its limits.
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I’m still waiting for my white male privilege membership card. Must have gotten lost in the mail.