A little ice

[Ted]

Must have had a bad one, cause if that is the worst, you couldn't have flown many Ottos. Although KAP140 has some quirks, it still flies purty nice for pistons. Now a GFC700.... Thats real nice.

I think everyone should fly an old and poorly maintained C-III. It will teach them to distrust APs!

 

[Laurie]

I think everyone should fly an old and poorly maintained C-III. It will teach them to distrust APs!

That is true - As good as the AP in the 92 was I never, ever trusted. Too many years of flying with very fickle AP's. Demonstrating a coupled approach on a 135 ride was a helluva lot more work than hand flying.

 

[Ted]

That is true - As good as the AP in the 92 was I never, ever trusted. Too many years of flying with very fickle AP's. Demonstrating a coupled approach on a 135 ride was a helluva lot more work than hand flying.

Exactly. As you know, I've had a history of bad autopilots and hand fly all approaches. This practice seemed to pay off when I hand flew the Cheyenne on a night ILS to mins (with a semi inop electric trim) and the runway was right there. And I'd never shot any approach in that plane, ever, with under 10 hours total in the plane.

Of course, the mustache was yelling about me not using the ****ing AP when he hadn't used the previous 8 hours of flying time that day to educate me on how to shoot a coupled approach with it.

 

[Dave Siciliano]

Nothing in my POH about disconnecting the AP in icing and it is updated. Still, I like to check to see how the plane feels and that nothing is binding periodically. In heavier ice, Mod, I would definitely check more often or hand fly.

On instrument approaches, I still fly coupled most times, sometimes just feel like hand flying. On the coupled approaches, I'm always ready to take control if it doesn't do what it should (which has been on many occasions in the 58P). Not so much with the KA --if I set everything up correctly (g). I have bypassed a Garman way point and gone into suspend. Now, I either load the approach and don't activate or activate the FAF to runway portion so if vectored by a point outside there, it doesn't go into suspend.
Flying an ILS to minimums in reasonably smooth air doesn't see so challenging now. Even at 200 feet, one has a lot of time to adjust after breaking out in my plane before touching down. Probably 30 seconds or more. Used to really feel loaded up. Now, it's got my full attention, but just a matter of double and triple checking everything to make sure I'm where I should be and keeping the power/heading where it needs to be.

Best,

Dave

 

[Ted]

Agreed that an ILS to mins in smooth air isn't challenging. In the Cheyenne case, it was an unfamiliar plane, anything but smooth, and a very long day. Lights at 200, runway at 100.

 

[Dave Siciliano]

That will start to make one's putter flutter (g).

Best,

Dave

 

[N747JB]

One of the reasons I picked the Conquest that I bought was it has an SPZ-500 autopilot, most, probably 95+% had Cessna autopilots. I didn't just look for the autopilot, but it was a factor in choosing this one.

Must have had a bad one, cause if that is the worst, you couldn't have flown many Ottos. Although KAP140 has some quirks, it still flies purty nice for pistons. Now a GFC700.... Thats real nice.

Ted is right though, turbine A/C Ottos are so much nicer.

For what its worth I have only flown one A/C that is SOP to disconnect the AP in icing and that is the Caravan.