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I echo the comments that autopilots are a GOOD
thing and reject the comments that somehow imply it's more MANLY to fly
without one.
I've been flying airplanes for 32 years now;
civilian, military and now airlines. Some may argue with this, but hand flying an airplane on a long cross
country flight is fatiguing. Hand flying IFR is VERY fatguing. Most
of the accidents we've seen are at the end of flights, when the cumulative
effects of fatigue, even small ones, can combine to bite you in the form of
small judgement errors. Add to that the inattention to your job at hand
when you're juggling charts or approach plates while trying to hand fly the
plane and it takes your eye off the ball. Add to that a possible problem
which diverts your attention while your altitude and/or airspeed diverge from
where you want them to be and an autopilot becomes an essential
tool.
If all you ever do is fly day VFR on relatively
short legs, the need for an A/P may be questionable. But I'd guess that
the majority of us who build Lancairs build them to go places and go fast,
sometimes at night and sometimes in the goo. For my money, my autopilot is
one of the most important parts of my plane and I use it all the
time.
My .02
Skip Slater
N540ES
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