In a previous article, Mxsmanic said:
Paul Tomblin writes:
Recent aircraft (like the Cirrus) have a switch that automatically trims
off all the control force that you or your autopilot are holding.

Sounds like aircraft will eventually go the way of cars, with only a few
idiot-light indicators and perhaps an airspeed indicator.

Sounds like you know very little about what it means to pilot an aircraft.

But the
sort of aircraft I can afford don't have that - you have to be pretty
close to trimmed before you can use the altitude hold.

What happens if you are far away when you engage the autopilot?

It disengages. If you're close but not right on, it flashes a "trim up"
or "trim down" light at you.

Sure, but it would be more logical to try out the autopilot when you're
checking out in the aircraft in the first place.

True, but when you're stuck in fog and you don't know anything about flying on
instruments, it might be instinctive to reach for something that could fly the
plane for you and give you some time to think of a way out of your situation.

Part of checking out in a new aircraft is becoming familiar with *all*
aircraft systems - and you should do that in perfect weather. If you
haven't become familiar with all aircraft systems then you shouldn't be
flying it alone in marginal weather.

Instrument Proficiency Check.

Were you engaged in unusual maneuvers that made you sick? I don't know what

Yes. One of the required skills for instrument flight is recovery from
unusual attitudes. You close your eyes, your instructor tries to get you
disoriented, puts the plane in an unusual attitude - usually either a
steep spiral dive or a steep climb near stall. It's the "get you
disoriented" part that got me sick - my instructor likes to give you a
real roller coaster. The first recovery, I counted four really hard
positive G pulls, a couple of hard negative G pushes,some hard slips and
skids, and the stall horn went off a couple of times. The second recovery
was about the same.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
Surely the 98% of DNA we share with monkeys must be enough to stop
people from sinking this low.
-- Frossie