"Don't do that. Don't ever do that," my instructor said. I was confused. I wasn't even sure I understood what his complaint was. But when I did, I realized the issue lay at the very heart of the debate about how to deal with cockpit automation. I said, "Let's talk about it on the ground." And so we did - at length. The instructor was, in my opinion, absolutely right and absolutely wrong. What was happening? I was getting a single-pilot type rating in a glass-cockpit jet - in the airplane and not a simulator. It was my first flight in the airplane, and right after takeoff air traffic control gave me a left turn away from the departure I had programmed in. All I really had to do was select "heading" on the mode selector and rotate the heading bug to my new heading. But my brain did not come up with the location of those controls right away. So I clicked off the autopilot, ignored the flight director, and turned left to quickly follow my new clearance.
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