"Ray Andraka" wrote in message
...
Why? I've only recently put an autopilot in my plane, and it is jsut a
single axis one at that. Before installing it, I've never flown IFR WITH
and
autopilot equipped plane (I have ~1100 hrs in 'the system'). Autopilot is
nice for flipping maps, taking clearances etc, but I don't consider it
mandatory. Even now, I hand fly most of the time. The autopilot mostly
gets
used only when attending to other chores. For flying in the Northeast, I
think having a strikefinder or equiv spherics detector is a much higher
priority than having an autopilot.

Jon Kraus wrote:

IMHO an autopilot is a must have if you are flying IFR. :-)



Under a situation of limited funds, one must weigh alternatives. This
article (from a autopilot manufacturer, so take what they say with a grain
of salt) does make some damn good, well reasoned points (in the form of a
decision tree at the end of the article).

www.s-tec.com/pdf/AutoPilotBook.pdf