Hi there, How often do you guys use the Auto Pilot in your flights? I was just curious…
Just about every flight and usually when I reach cruise altitude
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More often than I would like in GA. I find myself purposely selecting aircraft with no Autopilot, so I will have to fly the aircraft. I’m loving the An-2, right now.
Airliners are a totally different story, I use the automation.
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Depends.
Tigermoth for example - not so much, even though it has one that works fine.
Warrior/Arrow/Bonanza etc - AP for most longer flights for climb, cruise and descent.
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Only if I’m going cross country. If I’m flying local then I’m flying the BlackSquare Analog Bonanza by hand because it feels right.
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VR flights - Never
short haul - Never
Long haul - only once in the climb to cruise, but monitor the progress.
Practicing RNAV(GPS) approaches - only when I need help aligning to the flight path.
As I mainly fly Airliners for the Virtual Airlines now a days, I use it for the cruise duration 1-3 hours in the CRJ and 1-6 hours in the Fenix A320.
I take off and fly part of the SID by hand and then kick it in. I’ll kick it out and land by hand but how far back depends on weather.
I mostly fly the GA planes as VFR, and whether I use the autopilot (if available) depends mostly on whether I’m poking around below 3000’ AGL doing sightseeing and just have to avoid the ground, obstacles, and other planes by sight, or if I’m cruising to cover distance – in which case I’m probably going above 3000’ AGL and am supposed to stick to specific VFR cruise altitudes to provide vertical separation from IFR traffic.
It’s easy to be just a little off level if you’re not paying attention to your altimeter when hand-flying and drift off your cruise altitude into the path of oncoming IFR planes. 
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I use AP during climb-cruise-descent.
About 15nm from the runway I turn it off as I love to hand fly. Its the landings that are exciting and I cant let the automatics have all the fun!
VFR: Never
IFR: depends on weather. Normally i fly the SIDs and STARS by hand or else leave autopilot on till 1000 ft call out. Unless catIIIB circumstances, i leave ap on untill visual on the runway.
Always. Maybe I´ll learn to fly some day, but on the other hand… no, because there is a good autopilot installed! 
If the aircraft has autopilot I will use it from shortly after take-off to shortly before touch-down.
Granted I fly mostly CJ4 or the Cessna 152 ( which does not have an autopilot)
But like the cruise control in my car, I paid for the extra and will use it.
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Not much at all these days. I quite enjoy trimming the aircraft and seeing how she flies by hand. I mostly do short GA flights though.
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Pretty much this. Sometimes I’ll go low-level sightseeing, and AP is pretty irrelevant. Otherwise I like the freedom it gives me.
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It depends. Most of the time I’m flying IFR routes, even with GA. I’ll typically hand fly part of the departure, potentially up to cruise altitude. Then it’s AP until I’m on final.
That said, I also fly sightseeing flights or just solo discovery flights. When I do that, I tend to hand fly all the way.
Busy IFR environment, with a lot of ATC communications, and a complex departure … I get the AP on as soon as possible, to reduce pilot load.
Cross country VFR, sight seeing, not so often, unless its going to be a long flight, and I don’t want to be tired and exhausted at the arrival.
In the sim – whatever “literally” rock your boat /(Plane)
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Rarely. Generally only when cruising IFR fast and high for more than 30 minutes, which is rare for me. Hand-flying keeps my skills and division of attention sharp, using the AP is like a treat that reduces the workload. Though I will say it’s not a bad idea to keep the AP skills sharp, too.
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I use it quite a lot but usually do fairly short flights or about 1-2 hours. But I play mostly casually and love the satisfaction of learning about the aircraft systems and doing things like landing using ILS.
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IFR: Every flight after takeoff until I decide to disengage and handfly the approach. However far from the landing airport that may be.
VFR: regularly, but not every flight. Most VFR flights I do use AP for some part of the flight though.
Real life VFR: Almost never.
Username checks out! 
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