back to basics

[Jackpilot]

Had my CDU off for "maintenance"
Got the idea this morning to fly a small hop of 220 NM from CYUL, East to a 5500ft local strip with an NDB approach. Nice weather, 30 miles vis. FL190, 2 VOR's on the way. No autopilot, no autothrottle, stabilized descent at idle, from 55 miles out, lined up with the NDB on a 92° heading, came in real slow full flaps, kiss, full reverse, ....what a kick!

I think we are loosing our marbles, money and time with all this boring cockpit automation!

[Michael Carter]

I've been saying the same thing.

Fly the 727 once in awhile. What you described above is the norm for my aircraft.

[P1IC]

I'm just back from a holiday in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. The a/c was a 757. I watched very carefully (from my seat in 9a - don't these restrictions after 9/11 just suck?) as the pilot (Bob Austin - he has his name printed on the fuselage!) cowboyed it in manually from base leg to finals and kissed the runway on the fixed distance markers in a sporting crosswind. Absolutely no chance that ILS was used. He just flew it in visually. No big deal, but lots of fun.

On the way back home, Bob had of course to fly the procedure into 24L at CYYZ, thus getting the best of both worlds.

It's a rotten job, but someone has to do it :D