Manual Flight: A/T(HR) ON or OFF and WHY? | Real Airline Pilot

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My system specs:
Intel i9-9900k@5,2GHz
RTX3080Ti
32GB RAM
Windows 10 Pro
My hardware:
Thrustmaster Boeing Yoke
WinWings Orion2/F16 Grip
Thrustmaster Pendular Pedals
Honeycomb Bravo Throttle

[@Aleksandar6ix]

I've flown the 737 without it, but not much on the Airbus. Because of how little room I have on my throttle after notches.

[@greenesyt563]

If you are in a Xplane just customize your input gradients you'll get more room

[@AVIATIONSOUNDEXPERT]

When I flew many times with RYR during approach or final aporoach, I always could feel it when the pilot used manual thrust. As a passenger you can feel the thrust inputs, especially when they are a little bit stronger. I always could feel a kind of a boost when the engines increased the rpm. Even with slightest N1 changes, you could feel a boost, which shows how powerful the engines are when the aircraft is much lighter at the end of a flight.

[@noel0004]

Very interesting and always great to learn something new. Thanks!

[@Manuel-9-]

In my incredibly dilated experience as a sim pilot… I always have the A/T enabled when taking off and flying the SID manually in the pmdg 737 and it feels good, however for approaches I need to have manual thrust control or I get completely out of control. On the other hand with the Fénix A320 it feels more natural to land with ATHR enabled than with manual thrust.

[@tombulva]

Very interesting material. Thank you. 🙂

[@greenesyt563]

Correct me if I am wrong but I think boeing calls it Auto throttle and Airbus calls it Auto thrust considering the levers don't actually move.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

the control on the Airbus FCU is "A/THR" so this makes sense

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

There was a crash in Bucharest in the 90s, an A310 with autothrottle active but otherwise hand-flown. one throttle physically jammed, and the autothrottle ended up idling the other engine. the pilots did not notice and the resulting yaw and roll put them into the ground. I think that's where the "no autothrottle without autopilot" and/or "keep hands on yoke and throttles while on autopilot/autothrust engaged" rules came from

[@NickWilmans]

China Airlines 676.(Airbus A300) Pilots gave full thrust for a go around while the autopilot was disengaged. The pilots forgot they disengaged the autopilot. As a result. The nose of the aircraft pitched steeply and both pilots didn'd do anything, (still thinking the autopilot will correct) following an engine surge due to the high pitch, and a stall as final result. There was not enough altitude to recover it.

[@AmechiAmanugi]

Nice landing!!! 😃

[@A330Driver]

Thanks! 😀

[@mdhazeldine]

Great topic and well explained. I've done quite a few manual circuits in the FBW and Fenix A320s and found it easier to have A/T on. I'm not really sure why. Maybe because my Thrustmaster Airbus throttles have detents in them.

[@andreasfuerst8591]

Great video! Can You also make the same kind of video regarding flight directors on/off? I have the impression that different airlines also have different procedures? Thx a lot!

[@gwalker3092]

Thx for very interesting video. This is sort of in depth experience based information that’s so hard to find. I tend use AT on in Airbus as I find it hard to read all instruments so saves some workload.

[@AVIATIONSOUNDEXPERT]

One idea for a video that I have is temperature coreections for arrival. For example: Temperature compensation during approach, final approach. Correction of Altitude constraints, DA/DH. Correction during takeoff and departure, altitude constraints. Also with different temperature examples. Thank you.

[@A330Driver]

Hi, I covered cold temperature correction in detail in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpzNXoeCipiHgcksi=b8OEhOYWQBuRoLUB

[@BogWraith1]

This video is deceptively more important then it might seem at first. The use of the A/T and when to disengage it can make a huge difference in the overall control and handling, especially on final. Except for some rare circumstances, I disengage the A/T when I take manual control from the FMC. I find that I can react more accurately when I have command of both input axis. Besides, I also like to fly manually whenever it makes sense to. I mean, after all, why let the autopilot have all the fun!😎

[@TheSmurfboard]

Great to hear a pilot talking about this stuff. Why doesnt Airbus/Boeing add a sensitivity setting to the a/t so pilots can adjust it to their own liking ?

[@jetBlue_83]

Standardization. There would have to be a guaranteed way to reset to the default, or else you would need to retrain each time you flew a different airplane

[@yunjinbai4640]

It‘s quite interesting how different operators’ altitude towards 737NG‘s A/T, I’ve talked to an AA pilot who was a captain in 737-800 and he states that they will keep A/T until touch down or manually override it during flare when manually flying

[@A330Driver]

I wonder how they correct for the pitching moment. It can really screw you over, especially when AT does large thrust changes.

[@viplovprasad6894]

Good one!!

[@A330Driver]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@aidengohlke9713]

Have you tried something like TrackIR for handsfree looking around? It's super common in the military flight sim community where being able to visually track a target without taking your hands off the stick and throttle is crucial.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

I use FreeTrack and an off-brand TrackClip in DCS, and also in X-Plane to an extent. I use XCamera, not the built-in TrackIR support, because in XCamera I can specify if TrackIR is enabled or not for specific views. so my overhead and pedestal views are static and unTrackIR'd so I can click on fiddly things more easily

[@aidengohlke9713]

@@RoamingAdhocrat I haven't actually used anything related, but all the simmers I watch seem to use TrackIR or some open source version (I think it called OpenTrack, maybe?).

[@alessandroceloria4573]

So THAT is what I was doing wrong! Recently got Xplane and started flying the Zibo around like a big Cessna to try and get a hang of handflying and was adjusting thrust while flying... I was inducing my own oscillations 😂 Do you have any tips on flying manually a combination of IAS, VS and bank without flight directors? I find it quite difficult to maintain all three variables under control, especially the speed since as you mentioned adjusting thrust causes all sorts of secondary effects

[@FernandoLXIX]

Is there any preference regarding weather? I've seen people say that on bad weather they prefer to rely more on automation as it eases the workload and allows you to focus more on monitoring, but I've also heard people make the point that it's safer to handfly in bad weather bc. autopilot and autothrottle will behave erratically. Thanks for the informative videos

[@Micg51]

On the E jet we would usually go autothrottle off in gusts because it overcorrects, even though it’s FBW so no pitch oscillations

[@alikamran6414]

Very Interesting as usual. One question, you said airbus A/T also inputs changes according to the energy. By energy do you mean the overall flightpath energy (correct speed and altitude) like you explained a couple videos back?

[@tomstravels520]

He. might be referring to the ground speed mini function. If there are gusts there aircraft will increase the target airspeed (maintaining groundspeed) so if the wind suddenly drops the plane wont suddenly nearly stall

[@snowside]

What about using the A/T during departure? For how much time were you allowed to fly 737 manually with a/t on after take off? throttle levers' position should remain more or less stable during normal climb (just gradual increasing should be expected with altitude increasing). So, in case of level off is needed for some period of time, you were still allowed to keep A/T on with A/P off, because it's not an approach stage and the speed won't be maintained so aggressively?

[@vitorhugo9058]

I prefer to approach with the auto throttle turned on because it's easier and there are fewer things to worry about, however I have difficulty when touching down with the 37, I generally turn it off when I'm crossing or close to crossing the runway threshold. When the approach is made with the Auto throttle activated, what is the moment to turn it off, because otherwise it turns off it arrives accelerated and makes it difficult to flare. I'm not good at forming sentences in English and I'm using Google translate, I hope my question is clear. In aircraft with fly by wire like the B788 it is easier, I think that because I use an xbox control, the movements of the control stick are also a bit imprecise and in Boeing aircraft the work on the control stick is greater than in Airbus aircraft, this is my point of view based on the planes available in MSFS.

[@phenomenalnoumenon4140]

How likely is the the auto throttle would fail though? I mean it is always good to be comfortable using manual throttle in case it happens but it probably won’t?? Also nice video :)

[@A330Driver]

"Fail" is quite hard to define. It can certainly over- or underspeed you, all the way into the stall, especially at high altitude. In strong gusts it can also easily fool you. Those are cases the pilot is aware about though and thus prepared to manage. When we talk about actual failure as in "behaviour different than what it is meant to do" as in the Turkish Airlines crash at Amsterdam, those cases are really, really, really rare which is where the danger lies in the system as pilots don't expect it to happen. Any pilot expects the need to overwrite A/T in gusty weather. Hardly anyone expects it to retard to flare mode at 7.000ft.

[@umi3017]

My company fly 737 almost exclusively with AT off but for 777/787 and busses what I have heard is most of them manual approach with AT on. Personally in sim, I fly traditional airplane and C*U FBW system with AT off, and C* FBW system with AT on, as in C* system I really can't feel the speed change with stick pressure.

[@A330Driver]

You can't feel changing forces with changing speed, but then again that's not really the case in any hydraulically driven airplane. Many compensate with artificial feel computers but let's be honest: Regardless which airliner you fly, if you need any amount of significant force on your stick, something is wrong.

[@umi3017]

@@A330Driver The Changing force is not due to aerodynamic pressure but simple fact I need to move the stick to hold on G/S. in VMC under 1000' it can be done purely with outside visual reference. If I need pull on the stick to stay on glide I know I'll need add some throttle then ease the pressure on stick to stay on trimmed Vapp, but on C* FBW system I can't know that before I scanned on the ASI, or before the alpha protect kicks in.

[@yta7777777]

Sorry for the basic question: what does (HR) stand for in the title?

[@xendiac7725]

A/T (HRust) so, Autothrust instead of Autothrottle, some airlines/pilots say it differently.

[@A330Driver]

Airbus calls it A/THR, Boeing calls it A/T

[@SpidaMez]

Human resources

[@countryflyboy8255]

I have heard that the flight dynamics of the aircraft in X-Plane is better than msfs. And that's what I really want but I can't juggle two Sims. Just don't have the time for that unfortunately. I feel like I had better control on manual flight in fsx than I do in Msfs 2020. Maybe its just me.. 😊

[@A330Driver]

Flight Dynamics are indeed better in XP, but you need to ask yourself if better flight dynamics is worth giving up the visuals of MSFS. In my opinion - and seeing that we mostly fly on autopilots anyway, both real and in simulation - MSFS is the better compromise for realism. But of course that will vary and is a very individual subject.

[@Ahmedblaser]

I think flight dynamics and specifically ground effect is better in Xplane... Not much better. Try the just flight Bae 146 and you have even better flight dynamics than x_plane in this case.