Eventually it will happen; you're automatic pilot will get shot up, or break down, and your only hope of surviving, much less delivering your cargo, is to land your craft manually - by hand - by wire. Don't despair too much though, because it can be done even with no spaceport at all, which is the other use knowing how to land: mining. Even you aren't a miner, and you still have an intact autopilot, it's a good thing to know how to do, just in case.

In-System Travel

The first thing you need to do is actually get relatively close to your intended destination, be it a station or on a planet. It's really pretty easy and your autopilot doesn't do anything special, except occasionally cheat. Simply face in the direction of your target and start increasing your set speed. Although I personally prefer engine off mode for most of my flight, I think manual mode is easier for decelerating since you can simply set it as you like it rather than having to guess when to start using retros. you maximum speed in a typical system (>15 AU from your destination) should be five to fifteen thousand km/s-1, and your decelerating speed should be five thousand km/h-1 or so. When your targeting tunnel distance changes units form AU to km, you should really be pretty well decelerated (if not you may overshoot the planet, in which case you'll simply have to try again). If you're on the wrong side of a planet from where you'd like to be, simply overshoot it and then reverse direction. When the planet is clearly visible (and your on the same side as an orbiter if that's where your docking), you should be sure to switch to real time (1x stardreamer) before you being real docking maneuvers.

Docking at a Station

Docking at a station can be pretty tricky (not to mention time consuming), but isn't nearly as dangerous as landing unaided on a planet's surface. Once you near a planet you should probably see a small colored point orbiting it which will turn out to be a station if you turn labels on. Basically what you need to to is just aim for some point along the station's orbit until you are within few tens of thousands of km away (as appose to millions), and then aim at the station (or just beyond, along its orbit). You should slowly be approaching the station while maintaining height over the planet. Eventually, with luck, you'll come within visual range of the station, from which point you're basically home free: just align yourself with the station entrance, ask for clearance, and fly on in. You may want to practice this by autopiloting into planetary orbit and then locating a station to dock at (just so you're spared the tedium of flying through the whole system by hand).

Docking at a Spaceport

Coming into low orbit and then touching down on a landing pad is a bit simpler than docking at a station, but much more of a touch-and-go situation. Once you have a planet in your sights, simply fly towards your intended destination at a thousand kmh or less. Once the landing pad is clearly visible, slow down and attempt to come to a stop directly over it. If you've aimed straight at it the whole time, this should be easy, otherwise just fly towards a point over the port and come to a halt. You'll probably have been flying in manual engine mode so far so switch the engines off; the manual settings get in the way of docking since you'd have to face the port in order to approach it further. At this point you should begin to be pulled toward the planet's surface by its gravitational force (if not, face up and give the retros a quick tap, and then correct your orientation). The ship's thrusters should stabilize the ship enough so that you can land safely. Remember to lower your undercarriage and to ask for docking clearance. As the manual suggests, it may be useful to line up your ship with the ground using the exterior view. I also recommend some shields if your practicing.

Landing on the Surface

If you intend to do some mining on a planet's surface, autopilot or not, you'll have to land your ship manually. Once you've approached a planet as described above, aim at the very edge of the horizon and slowly fly towards it using manual flight mode. Eventually you should get an altimeter readout: correct you heading appropriately if you're descending to quickly or are gaining altitude. As you come closer to the planet's surface (~100km) extend your landing gear if you haven't already and slow your descent. If your speed is low enough and your heading aligned well with the horizon you should touch down on the surface unharmed, and come to a halt after a brief skid. From this point you can do whatever business you have and than take off normally (using the vertical take off button). If you crash consistantly make sure: you have atmospheric shielding, your landing gear are down, your speed isn't too great. However, don't be discouraged if you don't make it the first few times: landing is one of the trickiet things in Frontier or FFE and jsut takes some practice.