Here’s a picture of me flying a Phenom 100 in Australia for an episode in season one of Dangerous Flights. I go to do all of the flying that day because the captain wasn’t able to fly formation with the camera ship. Now in his defense the camera ship was a helicopter and therefore unsafe who’s top speed was just above the stall speed of the Phenom. Still it was probably my most fun day of flying ever.
Is this a case where some pilots would rather let the AP fly? The episode where they were hand-flying the Dornier on a long ferry trip sort of highlighted the fact that not all “big” planes have an AP, although i’m curious what the design considerations were for that plane. I can understand a water-bomber not having an AP.