IMC without an autopilot

Jon Kraus wrote:
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?

I think it would make single pilot IFR easier, but it should only make
it safer if the pilot is not competent to fly IFR.


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...

I think it is. You have to assume that the autopilot will not only fail
at the worst possible instant, you have to assume it will try to put the
plane in an unusual attitude as part of its failure process. If you
can't avoid an unusual attitude while hand flying, how are you possiby
going to recover from one induced by your failing AP?


Matt