FAA or Airline?

Question

Does the FAA or Airline require you to use the autopilot in an airplane over 12,500 pounds full of passengers?

Can you fly the whole flight manually if you choose? NYC to LAX?

Answer 1

The FAA doesn't require using it.  The airline might have guidlines for using it.

In the case of autopilot unreliability or failure the flight is flown manually.  The longest I've done is from St Louis to Phoenix in a B727.  I found it pretty fatiguing.  I saw a fellow fly the B727 from Calgary to Kansas City, but he was quite experienced and did it with ease.  --Didn't even use his flght director.

Answer 2

Not only that, but you can do it vfr if you feel the urge

Answer 3

There is a requirement (FAR 91 Subpart G) that an approved automatic altitude-hold be installed for operation in D-RVSM airspace, and other sources (standard D-RVSM MMEL, ops specs, etc.) require the use of the altitude hold/capture in D-RVSM airspace.

Answer 4

It depends upon the aircraft Minimum Equipment List requirements and / or the operator. I spent over 4,000 hours hand flying flying a Beech 1900 (16,700# gross weight) for a scheduled passenger airline that didn't even have an autopilot installed in a single one of their airplanes. On the other hand, some aircraft cannot be flown well, or very safely unless you're on autopilot during high speed cruise at altitude. The Lear 25 comes to mind on a job where we were limited to Mach .65 and 25,000 feet without a functional autopilot if passengers were on board.

Answer 5

As mentioned above, there are no FARs on the subject.  Most airlines have policy guidelines on use of auto controls.

You can do it VFR only if your entire route is under 17,900 ft above mean sea level.  We used to do it VFR in the old radial engine prop airliners, but it would be wasteful to do it in a pure jet.