I politely disagree, Douglas. The photo (coincidentally) shows my exact panel in my Cirrus SR22 and my new DFC90 autopilot. (And before I hear the inevitable comments about "newbie" pilot with no real experience flying airplanes) I have 1300 hours, am instrument rated, and I also own a J-3 Cub and a Fleet Finch biplane - so I know what my feet are for. I had a Searey experimental, a Cherokee six, a Maule M7, a 182 and a Piper Cherokee 140 as my first bird. And prior to the SR22, I flew all of the above from a 2100 foot strip. This is my first real flight director and Stephen's suggestion (to let "George" fly the ILS approach) and observe various power and flap settings, is a good one. Averaged out over a few dozen such fully coupled ILS approaches allows a fancy handwritten note pad and pencil scribblings of power settings and flap configurations for various speeds and rates of descent on the ILS as "suggested" by the autopilot. Using that variable calculus nails your glideslope very accurately -especially when using the flight director - and aside from normal wind corrections, hand flying an ILS patterned after the autopilot feedback is a piece of cake.
I politely disagree, Douglas. The photo (coincidentally) shows my exact panel in my Cirrus SR22 and my new DFC90 autopilot. (And before I hear the inevitable comments about "newbie" pilot with no real experience flying airplanes) I have 1300 hours, am instrument rated, and I also own a J-3 Cub and a Fleet Finch biplane - so I know what my feet are for. I had a Searey experimental, a Cherokee six, a Maule M7, a 182 and a Piper Cherokee 140 as my first bird. And prior to the SR22, I flew all of the above from a 2100 foot strip. This is my first real flight director and Stephen's suggestion (to let "George" fly the ILS approach) and observe various power and flap settings, is a good one. Averaged out over a few dozen such fully coupled ILS approaches allows a fancy handwritten note pad and pencil scribblings of power settings and flap configurations for various speeds and rates of descent on the ILS as "suggested" by the autopilot. Using that variable calculus nails your glideslope very accurately -especially when using the flight director - and aside from normal wind corrections, hand flying an ILS patterned after the autopilot feedback is a piece of cake.