Autopilot questions for small GA aircraft

In article . com,
chris wrote:

On May 9, 8:34 am, "Robert M. Gary" wrote:
On May 8, 1:13 pm, chris wrote:





Other comments welcome as well, of course.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

I think you'll find that it is very odd for a high performance single
to not have some sort of an autopilot. In my personal airplane I have
a single axis autopilot that can follow the loc, vor, etc. Most of the
time I use it on heading mode. For VFR it does a much better job of
holding a heading for 6 hours than I can (I tend to drift around a
bit). For IFR its very nice to not have to hold the plane upright in
mild turb while looking at charts. For any turb beyond mild my
autopilot tends to diverge so I have to turn it off. Incidently the
Mooney is one of the only aircraft certified for full time autopilot.
I later got an addition to my POH allowing me to turn the autopilot
off by pulling the breaker (which puts a big red light on in the
panel). The plane has no "off" switch for the autopilot because it was
certified as "full time". There is a red interrupt button on the yoke
but the second you release it, the autopilot is back in control. Some
pilots put rubber bands on the button to hold it down when they don't
want it.

-Robert

Wow, that's amazing!! So how do you do flight training in it? With
your hand on the button during a wingdrop etc, I suppose.. Sounds
like a bit of an oversight for them to not even include an off
button!!!! How do you get on taxiing??? In a normal autopilot you'd
have the controls trying to take your knees out constantly - Hide
quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yep, that's about what happens. I'm sure pilots had always pulled the
breaker. You do have to explain to pax why there is a big red warning
light on though.

-Robert- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That's about the most bizarre thing I have ever heard!

Indeed. I find it almost impossible to believe.

rg