Regarding teaching autopilot usage: I happen to be the person responsable for the simulator (FNPT II) of our flying school and next week our authority is sending someone for the annual check. So I am presently tidying up the machine a little and repairing some minor faults (I am not qualified and/or equipped to deal with major ones…). One recent criticism was that the lighting of the autopilot panel was not as good as before, actually of the 8 bulbs that illuminate the mode selector buttons 6 had failed. So I disassembled the thing (it is a real autopilot control panel of a well known manufacturer connected to a custom computer interface of the simulator manufacturer) and this is what it lookes like on the inside:
The buttons are constantly lit by minuscule 12V bulbs most of which have burned out during the approx. 4000 hours the machine has been operating. The top row of bulbs are the ones that show the selected operating mode. They all look like new, which means the autopilot has not been used a lot during those 4000 hours 
Instead of locating spare bulbs, I replaced them with LEDs. The mounting holes could not be used (they are 12V and there is no space for the resistors required by the LEDs), some ugly tinkering was required to fix the LEDs. But as this is non-flying hardware, I don’t care too much. Nobody is ever going to see this… What you can also see in the picture is that most mode selector buttons are partially melted by the heat generated from the lighting bulbs! So if you have this kind of autopilot (I won’t say names on a public forum), look out – there is a major design flaw.
What perhaps is needed is the equivalent of going through route training for an AOC? Practical single pilot A to B planning, adherence to SOPs and having an experienced practitioner providing a critique post flight, and not the ritualistic exam conditions of a re validation or initial. The conditions for the flight being realistic actual IMC conditions.
What is difficult about the maths? Every GNS430/530 gives you the required sink rate to arrive at a given point at a given altitude. Very handy but you can approximate it yourself and then correct. Our airplanes are slow enough to do that.
you need a FMS with the appropriate descent profile
You should be good to go then!
you need a FMS with the appropriate descent profile
I happen to have one! 
Unless you are really good at mental arithmetics, you need a FMS with the appropriate descent profile, a virtual glide slope and preferably an autopilot capable of following a descent profile, in order to perform a CD on an RNAV STAR.
What is difficult about the maths? Every GNS430/530 gives you the required sink rate to arrive at a given point at a given altitude. Very handy but you can approximate it yourself and then correct. Our airplanes are slow enough to do that.
One of the best tips I’ve had from airline pilot friends is to “Request continuous descent”.
Unless you are really good at mental arithmetics, you need a FMS with the appropriate descent profile, a virtual glide slope and preferably an autopilot capable of following a descent profile, in order to perform a CD on an RNAV STAR. Otherwise you will necessarily have step-downs and need to level off before the next step-down.
Airliners don’t usually aim to intercept the GP from above as the aircraft is likely to be increasing airspeed while trying to do so unless it is using a lot of drag.
The aim is usually to hit the glide from below at about 180 kt with as little drag as you can get away with and then go down the glide using a little more drag to keep the speed in check in an ideal world you would take the gear at 5 miles and landing flap at about 3.5 miles based on a Vref of about 145 kt
One of the best tips I’ve had from airline pilot friends is to “Request continuous descent”.
That’s what I use, but I never get it. I get steps which, as I described, can be “made to work suitably”. But sometimes one has to level off before the next step is granted.
I wonder if any airline pilot can input here? Big jets fly CDs and even join the glideslope from above, apparently.
It did say CDFA, not just CD. CDFA is available to everyone afaik.
This is a different thing. CDFA is the act of flying a nonprecision approach, with a continuous descent from the FAF to the MAP, and ignoring any stepdowns between the two. Anybody can fly that because there is no clearance involved after you have been cleared for the approach.
I have often asked for a CD but never actually got one
One of the best tips I’ve had from airline pilot friends is to “Request continuous descent”. Although it does normally come in anticipating steps, it does prevent the miserable situations I was sometime being lured into – e.g. FL100 at 5 miles from destination! Perhaps some ATC units are more inclined to cooperate than others?
J
Continuous descents aren’t available to GA
It did say CDFA, not just CD. CDFA is available to everyone afaik.
