Peter Bondar ) wrote:

As a fellow few hundred hour KAP140 user, I have a couple of comments:

Easy to inadvertantly fly an ILS instead of a GPS if you mistune the NAV
receiver

Huh... I have heard of accidently flying the GPS course instead of the ILS,
since transitioning from GPS to ILS is more common than the reverse, but I
have never heard of the opposite. What scenario would allow this to
easily occur? I cannot think of one, other than the pilot was seriously
confused.

Furthermore, the AP will not fly the glideslope unless APR (a separate AP
mode button) was pushed. If someone *accidently* did this, then they would
be best served voluntarily grounding themselves until they had remedial
cockpit management training.

Because its pitch information is based on rate of climb , mountain waves,
buump clouds,
thermals can cause significant airspeed and pitch chnage attitudes,
including stalling the plane!

True enough. A pilot flying with the KAP140 needs to be ready to adjust
the throttle and disengage the AP at a moment's notice.

Inadvertant engagement of the AP on teh ground can cause uncontrollable trim
excursions

There was a C182 accident somewhere in England a couple of years ago where
this was the probable cause. The theory was that the pilot hit the AP
button with his knuckle when he pushed the throttle forward for the runup,
then never noticed the trim at full deflection.

In response to the investigation, B/K made a few modifications to the AP to
prevent this type of accident. I believe there was an A/D for the changes,
but my KAP140 was produced after the changes were implemented (fall 2002),
so I do not have the specifics on the A/D.

One of the changes B/K made was the method in which a pilot engages the AP.
No longer does the switch on the yoke engage the AP; it only disengages it.
Additionally, the AP button on the AP itself must be held for three seconds
to engage the unit.

Another change was the addition of an audio warning ("Trim in Motion" over
the intercom) if the trim is in motion for more than 4 seconds, presumably
to call attention to the AP if it were inadvertently engaged on the ground.
There is also an annunciator panel light that flashes when the trim is in
motion for greater than four seconds.

And finally, a non-AP change as a result of this accident was that Cessna
was asked to change the order of the pre-takeoff checklist to move the
"Trim set to TO" after the runup portion of the checklist. If this was
done, it was done after the 2002 model year, as my checklist still has this
item towards the beginning of pre-takeoff list.


--
Peter












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