Fly-by-wire is an Airbus buzzword for controlling aircraft mechanisms using electronics, rather then hydro-mechanics. (See Wikipedia.) Autolanding is again function of aircraft equipment. When I say instrument flights, I am referring to flying performed following Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) under Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC), as described in ICAO Annex 2.Eldacar wrote:Yes, fly-by-wire is common. However, auto-landing features (if that's a part of what you mean) are rarely used even in absolutely optimal conditions, and all those factors I mention still play a part.However, I should stress, that I am talking about instrument flights (i.e. what airlines regularly do),
OK, I was not precise here. Charts should be consulted during pre-flight briefing. During flight, they are available as reference in case of need, and may be occassionally checked, typically by the second pilot. For example, on non-precision approach charts, there is a descent table specifying altitudes to reach in certain distances from the reference DME. It is typically the job of second pilot to check if the values charted are consistent with those on instrument panel, while the first pilot concentrates on flying.Not mid-landing, they don't. Nor even mid-flight, depending on situation (e.g. on an instrument flight a while back that I was accompanying the instructor on, the pilot was given a visor that blocked his view of everything but the instruments - he flew according to the plotted course that he had worked on prior to take-off, with the instructor on-hand and ready to take control in case there was an error).during which pilots heavily consult charts
If you want to see our charts, you can browse Czech AIP here: http://lis.rlp.cz/ais_data/www_main_con ... en_aip.htm
This is what Jeppesen, LIDO and EAD use for source.