AUTOPILOT PROS & CONS

All the comments about monitoring for failures are worthy of
consideration. And staying current enough to cope with those
failures is essential. You need to be able to hand fly it.

That said, one of the common features of instrument training is
that stick wiggling is featured and evaluated.

The success factor in serious IFR travelling is being the captain--
the flight manager. Making the in-flight decisions. Key example:
Coping with weather.

Can be that stick wiggling interferes with concentrating on the.
flight management duties. A good autopilot is a key tool at times
like that.

Folks pooh-pooh coupled approaches. Those who have actually
flown them, especially under low-light, minimum conditions know that
good
runway alignment when breaking out is essential. I'm not as good
as the autopilot, so I let it handle those situations.

FWIW. Bill Hale
Chicken.