Jon Kraus wrote in message ...
Just curious as to opinions about flying in IMC without an autopilot?
Does an autopilot make flying in the clouds safer or is it just a crutch
for the lazy?
For myself being new to IFR flying I feel safer knowing that if needed I
could turn the autopilot on. Maybe it is a false sense of security...

Most rate based autopilots (those connected to the turn coordinator)
tend to like to do rolls in turb. They should be shut off when being
bounced in the clouds (most real world IMC). The bigger planes (higher
end singles, etc) use attitude based autopilots which work much
better.
-Robet