Book excerpt: Currently, flight automation is nearly total in commercial aircraft. Automatic control systems are becoming increasingly popular in smaller and sports aircraft as well. In all cases, the proper functioning of an automatic flight system allows the pilot to free up attention from certain tasks and focus more on other aspects within the cockpit. However, it wasn’t always this way. The autopilot had its beginnings almost concurrently with the early days of aviation—an idea that at the time seemed extremely outlandish but would forever impact the field of aviation. In this work, you will learn all about the principles of automatic flight system operation and its various functions, using several commercial aircraft as examples. Autopilot, flight director, automatic power control, automatic navigation, and many other functions make an automatic flight system a significant advantage that enhances operational safety. It is the pilot’s responsibility to understand all its features and learn to operate these systems as effectively as possible. We will help you with that!