Hi Paul,

I've tried every mode in the 737-800 and I've never been able to get it to stabilize on descent, except for vertical speed. This isn't the case with the 757, 767 or 777 though. The autopilots in those airplanes are extremely smooth.

>>Some airlines encouraging use of auto-pilot from 1000ft after takeoff until near landing due to inexperience of crew to minimise work load and risk.>>

Two schools of thought there. I'd encourage co-pilots to hand fly approaches (especially visual approaches) if they're inexperienced. But if workload doesn't permit it, then certainly, use the level of automation you're comfortable with.

It's true many aircraft with sophisticated autopilots don't have autothrottles. This is very often the case in the latest corporate jets. It doesn't apply to any Boeings or Airbus products, though.

Thanks for taking the time to point out some other points of view. There's always more than one way to do it, and I can only refer to the aircraft I fly at the company I work for. So it's nice to hear what others are doing.