Marco Leon wrote:

There are many very experienced old-hats that are of the opinion that
autopilots are required equipment for single-pilot IFR. An STEC-30 or 50 is
high on my upgrade list. Until it's in the panel, I will not fly any
appreciable IMC (more than 1 hour) without an instrument rated co-pilot.

I'm glad I'm not an old hat. I flew single pilot IFR very frequently
for the six years that I owned a Skylane. And this was in the northeast
where we have a fairly wide range of weather during most of the year and
also fairly high traffic density. My airplane didn't have an autopilot
and I found flying IFR to be fairly easy most of the time. Last might
reroutes in turbulence could make reprogramming the GPS a little tricky
while flying, but even that was manageable.


Matt