I usually manually fly to target area. I always have all AP Channels on except Altitude hold that i engage and disengage at will. When I reach the ingress point I engaged auto hover with auto turn to target on. I scan the area to gain situation awareness, were the friendly's are located and try to scout for target and sometimes order my wingman to recon.
If I want to get closer to the target so I can fire a missile, I engage auto turn to target and route mode, so I can have my hands free to do other thinks.
As for the ABRIS i use it for situation awareness and see how close my target zone is and also were my Wingman is located. Also the ABRIS saves your root with a black line so if i want to go to a previews location, or if i had defencevly manoeuvre i can check where I was.