I find the concept of engaging an autopilot at 400 feet above the ground on take off and 50 feet above the ground on landing to be very dangerous. Why?
Because, if the autopilot experiences what is called an un- commanded in-put, or to put it in layman's term, a malfunction, there is little, if any airspace to recover.
If the auto-pilot through some strange computer error calls for the rudder to move hard right or left, there is absolutely no air space left to recover.
Two tragic crashes of Boeing 737s have taken place. One in Pittsburgh, and another one at another location.
The fact is, they were never able to find the cause of those crashes with any degree of certainty. They said that the rudder went into an un commanded manuever and caused the plane to roll over on its back, killing all aboard.
This is just plain stupid to trust a mechanical auto pilot that close to the ground. The pilots should hand fly the aircraft to a minimum of 2500 feet and then let the auto pilot take over.
I can't believe the stupidity of the flight training on this. I won't even use auto-pilot in my car because of the danger of it suddenly taking over the throttle and causing an accident.
Mistakes and glitches can and do occur. And I sure as hell would not want to trust my life and the life of 150 passengers to the cleanliness of the hydraulic fluid operating the rudder, and some auto-pilot which has gone through 1000s of flights.
This is not right and not smart flying. Now, I'm sure that I will be deluged with pilots protesting what I'm saying, but I stand by my observation.
You can rest assured that Air Force One and it's pilots would never DREAM of indulging in such lazy antics with the President on Board.
I always thought that Southwest had it's act together. Now, I realize they are an accident waiting to happen.
How lazy can you be? Wait until you are at a safe altitude, and then engage the auto pilot. Otherwise, there is absolutely no room to recover from an glitch in the autopilot system.
And quite frankly, I don't care how many flight instructors disagree with me on this, it's a stupid practice.
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