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.
One of my first trips in the airplane was a day trip to the Denver area. The morning flight there was uneventful and it actually felt good to be hand flying over the mountains in good VMC.
Not so for the return that afternoon. As you might know, summer (It’s the end of August as I write this.) along the front range of the Rockies commonly brings afternoon thunderstorms, significant wind, and generally unpleasant weather. This is exactly what I had for the return flight. Conditions weren’t bad enough to consider canceling, so we took off.
Upon handoff from Tower to Departure, they started giving me headings that bore no resemblance to my planed route. Apparently things had significantly built up and changed just in the brief time since I’d filed. Okay, go with the flow.
In spite of ATC’s extraordinary efforts to keep me clear of the worst, there was still plenty of that unpleasant to handle. The ride was turbulent. I was in seemingly constant communication with ATC. Plus, of course, I wanted to make use of the excellent weather tools I have on board. Oh, and remember my autopilot was inop.
It had been a long time since I’d had to work that hard just to maintain heading and altitude. I did okay, but I wouldn’t want to have been graded on the precision of my performance. Of course, all the other tasks of power settings, managing fuel, programming all the reroutes, dialing up the weather displays and information while trying to keep my passengers briefed, well, it was challenging and exhausting.
After over an hour the weather abated and the last hour was uneventful, even occasionally allowing me to relax a bit. After we got home safely, I took the time to reflect both on my performance and on the whole adventure sans autopilot.
Back when I did my initial instrument training, autopilots were uncommon in GA. All of us learned to deal with the vagaries of the atmosphere. But the aircraft we used in that training really weren’t equipped for much worse than low ceilings and visibility. Today, of course, I fly in much more challenging conditions, but with an aircraft far better equipped to handle them. Except if the autopilot is inop.
We frequently are told that a good autopilot is a necessity for flight in serious IMC. I just had a clear example of why. So, yes, the autopilot is now on my required-equipment list. (BTW, the forecast for my return was far better than I encountered. Still, I probably should have waited.)
