Got Autopilot?

The morning flight there was uneventful. Not so for the return that afternoon.

Frank Bowlin

Friday, October 04, 2024 at 05:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The author is flying his airplane again after a lengthy engine overhaul process, but without a working autopilot due to a controller repair that requires shop configuration.
A return flight from Denver encountered severe afternoon thunderstorms and turbulence, forcing the author to hand-fly through challenging conditions while managing multiple tasks like ATC communication, weather tools, and reroutes.
This demanding experience, performed without autopilot assistance, highlighted the critical importance of a functional autopilot for flying in serious instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) or adverse weather, leading the author to consider it essential equipment.

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For those of you who might be following my tribulations with my airplane, I have an update. The quick backstory is that I needed overhauled engines and it took about six months to get the engines, then another couple months to install them. That’s all done now and I’m again flying the airplane, hoping to quickly rack up enough hours to complete the break in and return to my normal operations.

Meanwhile, I’d had a minor problem with my GFC 600 autopilot controller and it had to be sent back to Garmin for repair. That was completed, but on return the controller needed to be again configured for this installation. That had to wait until I could fly to the shop, and that had to wait for an opening in the shop’s schedule. So, for the moment, I have no working autopilot.