Autopilot required?

for one of many examples, under our opspecs the autopilot is required to be on for cat II ILS approaches.
 
Various times, depends a bit on the operator, but for most operators, any time the approach says "special air crew requirements" or similar, such as CAT 2 or 3, and, generally, for RVSM.
 
The reason I ask was there was some random guy telling me today that you had to have your a/p on above FL260. I thought that sounded weird unless its a 121 or 135 reg or some RVSM reg.
 
meritflyer said:
The reason I ask was there was some random guy telling me today that you had to have your a/p on above FL260. I thought that sounded weird unless its a 121 or 135 reg or some RVSM reg.
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Here's two...

135.93 -- Minimum Altitudes for use - less than 500' AGL or less than twice the max alt loss etc

135.105 -- Exception to second in comand rqmt: use of autopilot.

I thought there was a reg that required autopilot use above a specific altitude - can't seem to find the answer. I thougt it was FL250 or maybe FL350 - where the density makes the controls sluggish or something like that.
 
one of our lear pilots told me he got into an arguement with a regional pilot over this, the lear guy said its just required to be installed, the regional guy said its required to be on in RVSM airspace.

I know nothing about any of it, just thought id throw in what i heard.
 
This is from Appendix G to part 91 - Operations in Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) Airspace


(c) Altitude-keeping equipment: All aircraft. To approve an aircraft group or a nongroup aircraft, the Administrator must find that the aircraft meets the following requirements:

(1) The aircraft must be equipped with two operational independent altitude measurement systems.

(2) The aircraft must be equipped with at least one automatic altitude control system that controls the aircraft altitude—

(i) Within a tolerance band of ±65 feet about an acquired altitude when the aircraft is operated in straight and level flight under nonturbulent, nongust conditions; or

(ii) Within a tolerance band of ±130 feet under nonturbulent, nongust conditions for aircraft for which application for type certification occurred on or before April 9, 1997 that are equipped with an automatic altitude control system with flight management/performance system inputs.

(3) The aircraft must be equipped with an altitude alert system that signals an alert when the altitude displayed to the flight crew deviates from the selected altitude by more than:

(i) ±300 feet for aircraft for which application for type certification was made on or before April 9, 1997; or

(ii) ±200 feet for aircraft for which application for type certification is made after April 9, 1997.



Notice it just says "equipped", not "must be used". I'd say the Lear guy was right.
 
I was hand flying at 270 today.......

part 91 appendix G

All you ever wanted to know about RVSM

Appendix 4 of the second link is what we need to pay attention to as pilots.....

It basically says that for certification, one altitude control system (autopilot) needs to be installed. Nowhere in that document does it say that an autopilot is required to be on. Just a bunch of shoulds. Different operators may have different requirements written into their LOA's though....
 
They are both right.

My part 121 Ops Specs (or the abbreviated version that is published in my manual) states that the autopilot must be engaged in cruise in RVSM airspace.

Part 91, App G, Sec 3(b)(g) states that Part 121 or Part 135 operators must submit policies and procedures that will enable it to conduct RVSM operations safely. For Part 91 operators, it states a letter of authorization only is required.

I don't know enough about the authorization process to know for sure...but a little reading sure seems that Part 91 operators may not have the autopilot "required" restriction.
 
B767Driver said:
They are both right.

My part 121 Ops Specs (or the abbreviated version that is published in my manual) states that the autopilot must be engaged in cruise in RVSM airspace.

Part 91, App G, Sec 3(b)(g) states that Part 121 or Part 135 operators must submit policies and procedures that will enable it to conduct RVSM operations safely. For Part 91 operators, it states a letter of authorization only is required.

I don't know enough about the authorization process to know for sure...but a little reading sure seems that Part 91 operators may not have the autopilot "required" restriction.
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This is correct, which is why I said "generally" in my post above. However, if you got an altitude bust in RVSM and the a/p was off, you would have a hard time explaining yourself. On the other hand, I think there are times when it needs to be turned off for short periods of time in some aircraft, and this allows some leeway there for some operators.
 
On the other hand, I think there are times when it needs to be turned off for short periods of time in some aircraft, and this allows some leeway there for some operators.
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head, I can think of an RA in RVSM. Other than that, I don't think there's anything in our Op Specs that let us turn it off. Then again, those only apply to us, not other carriers.
 
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