Housekeeping chores

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

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL
Student-IA

Matthew S. Whiting wrote:

Dan Thompson wrote:

Are you kidding? The autopilot is a go/no-go item.

"Hankal" wrote in message
...

Study my Garmin 530 manual and learn three more things it does. Or
do a


VOR

cross check. Or total up the columns in my log book. Or trim


fingernails,

finish the crossword puzzle. If it is a real cross country you have


plenty

of dead time.


You are either a super pilot or have a autopilot.





What's an autopilot? :-)

Matt

Kidding aside, the autopilot takes the monotony and boredom out of IFR. To
me, there is nothing challenging about maintaining altitude and track for
hours at a time in the clouds. It is just boring as hell. The autopilot is
not a substitute for hand-flying skills. One must always be sharp enough to
go without. I usually hand fly approaches, because I enjoy it. If I am
really tired for some reason, or the ceilings are really low, it is actually
safer to use the autopilot which can fly the approach better than I can.

My initial and instrument flight instructor back in the early '90s went on
to flying ATR turboprops for American Eagle. One time he called me up out
of the blue to see if I wanted to go fly some practice approaches in my
plane. I was amazed to find out that the commuter planes then were not
equipped with autopilots. He said with two pilots on board, and short, fast
hops between stops, it was never really an issue.

"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
...
IMHO an autopilot is a must have if you are flying IFR. :-)

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL
Student-IA

Matthew S. Whiting wrote:

Dan Thompson wrote:

Are you kidding? The autopilot is a go/no-go item.

"Hankal" wrote in message
...

Study my Garmin 530 manual and learn three more things it does. Or
do a


VOR

cross check. Or total up the columns in my log book. Or trim


fingernails,

finish the crossword puzzle. If it is a real cross country you have


plenty

of dead time.


You are either a super pilot or have a autopilot.





What's an autopilot? :-)

Matt

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

Good thing I didn't know that or I'd not have been able to fly my
Skylane for six years in IFR! The Skylane also apparently didn't know
that it needed an autopilot as it flew in the clouds just fine without
it. :-)

There were a few times when an AP would have been nice, such as when
getting a full route reroute and having to reprogram the GPS, but even
that could be done in stages. Just get the first waypoint in and then
you could add the others one or two at a time.

Does tend to keep your flying skills pretty sharp ... and I never had to
worry about my AP failing at a critical time.


Matt

I never said you couldn't fly IFR without an autopilot. For myself being
new to IFR flying I wouldn't chance IMC without the autopilot working.
Since my club only has newer planes, they all have two axis autopilots,
that way if something happens (spacial disorientation) I'm covered. I
think I'll bring up this topic in a new thread and see what kind of
responses I get. Thanks for the enlightenment.

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL
Student-IA

Matthew S. Whiting wrote:

Jon Kraus wrote:

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


Good thing I didn't know that or I'd not have been able to fly my
Skylane for six years in IFR! The Skylane also apparently didn't know
that it needed an autopilot as it flew in the clouds just fine without
it. :-)

There were a few times when an AP would have been nice, such as when
getting a full route reroute and having to reprogram the GPS, but even
that could be done in stages. Just get the first waypoint in and then
you could add the others one or two at a time.

Does tend to keep your flying skills pretty sharp ... and I never had
to worry about my AP failing at a critical time.


Matt

Jon Kraus wrote:
I never said you couldn't fly IFR without an autopilot. For myself being
new to IFR flying I wouldn't chance IMC without the autopilot working.
Since my club only has newer planes, they all have two axis autopilots,
that way if something happens (spacial disorientation) I'm covered. I
think I'll bring up this topic in a new thread and see what kind of
responses I get. Thanks for the enlightenment.

I know you didn't say that, hence the smiley after my statement.
However, and this is a serious statement, I would never fly IFR if I
even thought I'd have to depend on the AP to rescue me from spatial
disorientation.


Matt

We'll we don't go up into the clag saying "I think I'll get spatially
disoriented today" do we... You don't have to depend on it but - "what
your facial expression would be after you were mixed up in the clag and
the AP helped you out" PRICELESS.. :-)

Matthew S. Whiting wrote:

Jon Kraus wrote:

I never said you couldn't fly IFR without an autopilot. For myself
being new to IFR flying I wouldn't chance IMC without the autopilot
working. Since my club only has newer planes, they all have two axis
autopilots, that way if something happens (spacial disorientation)
I'm covered. I think I'll bring up this topic in a new thread and see
what kind of responses I get. Thanks for the enlightenment.


I know you didn't say that, hence the smiley after my statement.
However, and this is a serious statement, I would never fly IFR if I
even thought I'd have to depend on the AP to rescue me from spatial
disorientation.


Matt

Jon Kraus wrote:
We'll we don't go up into the clag saying "I think I'll get spatially
disoriented today" do we... You don't have to depend on it but - "what
your facial expression would be after you were mixed up in the clag and
the AP helped you out" PRICELESS.. :-)

It is the expression I'd get when I lose proficiency and my failed AP
takes me into an attitude that I no longer have the skills to recover
from that I worry about. That's priceless also, but in a much more
permanent way... :-) Although, your wife might be happy if your life
insurance is paid up!


Matt

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. :-)

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL
Student-IA

Matthew S. Whiting wrote:

Dan Thompson wrote:

Are you kidding? The autopilot is a go/no-go item.

"Hankal" wrote in message
...

Study my Garmin 530 manual and learn three more things it does. Or
do a


VOR

cross check. Or total up the columns in my log book. Or trim


fingernails,

finish the crossword puzzle. If it is a real cross country you have


plenty

of dead time.


You are either a super pilot or have a autopilot.





What's an autopilot? :-)

Matt


--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

Ray Andraka wrote:
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.

I agree. My Skylane had a Strikefinder, but no AP. I seldom even
wished for an AP. I'd have much rather had a moving map GPS.

Matt

"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