Tough question. It really depends on what one likes to fly. If I’m in an airliner or fighter on a long route, I use a lot of AP, usually because I’ve taken the time to plan the route via Navigraph. If I’m in a fighter and having fun with the stick, zero AP. It’s all relative. I don’t have any interest in planes like the Cessna or smaller stuff, so no opinion there for me.
They do work on my FS2020 Cessna 172 Skyhawk (G1000).
When I fly aimlessly (that is, without a set destination, just discovering the scenery and decide to land somewhere later), then I hand-fly and I really like it. Most GA aircraft are really fun to fly manually. In any other case I use the autopilot, both for GA and airliners, basically for the whole duration of the flight.
If my destination is over an hour away, I will us AP.
I flew two seater aircraft and they didn’t have an autopilot so there wasn’t an option. I never flew more than 2 hours per flight because it was too tiring.
As for other aircraft, it depends on the pilot and where airlines are involved, the airline. Some airlines allow pilots to fly manually pretty infrequently. I’ve no idea what each airline allows for.
I usually ‘hand fly’ autopilot, with no flight plan or waypoints, mainly for the point to point parts of a flight. I’ts not unusual for me to just randomly decide on a different airport on my original abstract ‘route’ and flip the switch off and divert to somewhere else. But if I’m between islands at 5K feet and about 1/2 hour to cover, sure I’ll lock in the heading bug and hold altitude for a bit. For a fast mover like the TBM I use a lot more AP, even if still flying a completely ‘raw’ route without using any navigation aides other than maybe the map on the MFD.
I do occasionally fly a more proper flight plan or IFR flight, but with the bugginess of the sim, I’ll just randomly decide, Hollywood FL to SOMEWHERE in the Bahamas and go up and away and figure it out en route. Or Gibraltar to somewhere, or St. Barth to somewhere, etc. Fly a vector at 7k feet and just see something ‘what’s that?’ and head in for a look. If I’m flying low around Sydney or AK in the Goose, then no, I don’t use AP.
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I ususally fly commercial aircraft, so it’s a pretty large portion of my flight time. I did recently buy PMDG’s DC-6, and i’m looking forward to a lot of flying by hand with that classic.
I use all of it.
Depends on aircraft. Airliners - I hand fly to about 10,000 feet then turn on AP, then I turn off the AP when on final if weather is decent, and manually land.
GA aircraft - Mainly hand fly though sometimes I do turn on the AP (if it has one) and do some sightseeing.
about 15 min after start and 15 min before landing
if weather, traffic is easy to handle
depends what im doing atm, the AP is just another a tool in the toolbox, if it makes the flight easier or more enjoyable i use it
i fly almost exclusively small aircraft (xcub being my ‘goto’) and unless im like ground level ‘running’ a river or canyon or maybe circling a poi, i probably have the ap on inflight so i can ‘sightsee’ as i fly
it also allows you to navigate and operate other systems safely and comfortably
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I use autopilot a lot. I only hand fly the take-off and last part of an ILS landing manually, the rest of the flying is done with AP. I also like to use it when sight seeing a new city, using the heading bug to steer the aircraft and altitude hold.
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If you really want to know how much you use AP. Go into your pilot profile and scroll down to
Total flight time with autopilot engaged
Total flight time without autopilot engaged
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Okay, I see a LOT of folks use it for various reasons but lets add to this a bit.
Which General aviation planes in MSFS (if there are any) can take you almost all the way down to the runway?
I’ve had the sim since December 2020 and have never used the autopilot. As a non IRL pilot I just assumed the autopilot was for beginners who didn’t know how to fly a plane.
I’ve been flying the Cessna 172 G1000 for the past couple weeks and now you guys have sent me down a rabbit hole! i’m watching Forder Learns To Fly lesson on using AP right now and it’s fascinating. I didn’t know it was such a complex topic! Actually looking forward to trying to it now.
When flying the C172 G1000 or the Bonanza G36, I always use the autopilot for long flights such as KRVS to KGLS. I let the autopilot fly the aircraft all the way to the glideslope on ILS approaches. I hand-fly once I get to final approach. I will hand-fly the aircraft for the entire flight when flying in my local area.
It’s quite the opposite, lol. If you want to focus on aviate, navigate and communicate it’s an amazing tool. The AP is having to work quite hard to maintain altitude and track.
It’s about intelligent workloads. Hand flying over long distances or IFR conditions takes a large amount of focus.
In general, I hand fly when low altitude sight seeing, performing aerobatics, takeoff or on approach. I like to take over earlyish when possible on ILS as taking it down to minimums doesn’t give me enough feel to nail center line.
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How much Autopilot do you use?
All of it. Every last bit of it.
There’s a bug with AI auto-rudder, if you use that. The C172 should have left rolling tendencies, not right.
Prior to SU9, the C172 would always fly straight and level with auto-rudder assist on. Now it’s broken.
I divided the first number by the second, which says I had autopilot engaged 43% of the time. (or should I have added the two numbers first, my math is bad. If I do “Total with autopilot engaged” divided by “Total flight time” then I get 30%)
@HethrMasn Thanks for that information. I didn’t realize it was a bug! I remember when that never happened but it took you stating that for it to jog my memory. I also have Auto-rudder on because I don’t have rudder pedals. I’ll probably switch to a different aircraft and see how that works.