Using Your Autopilot

The point here is that once George is flying, our mental paradigm becomes letting him fly and just telling him what to do. This occasionally results in way too much energy and button-mashing to make a last-minute change. Its ever so much simpler to be hand flying in the first place and, well, aim elsewhere. So, pick an altitude below which youll always hand fly. Perhaps its 1000 feet AGL, or maybe all the way down to 400 feet (but no lower).

Frank Bowlin

Wednesday, August 15, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Autopilots are valuable aids that reduce pilot workload and enhance safety, allowing focus on higher-level tasks, but they require continuous pilot vigilance and a thorough understanding of their capabilities and limitations.
Pilots must avoid using autopilots as a crutch for inadequate hand-flying skills and should always be prepared to hand-fly, particularly in critical phases of flight such as below 1000 feet AGL in busy airspace or during traffic/terrain avoidance maneuvers.
Maintaining proper aircraft trim is crucial for efficient autopilot operation, preventing premature wear on servos, and ensuring the autopilot can effectively manage control forces or be easily overridden.
Effective autopilot use demands mastery of its specific "buttonology" and an understanding of its behavior during course changes, intercepts, and altitude management, often requiring precise timing or manual intervention for optimal performance.

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Autopilots save us from the routine tasks of keeping the shiny side up while allowing us the freedom to concentrate on higher-level tasks, like figuring out how the approach we’re about to fly is supposed to work. In so doing, they keep the plane going where it should—under our watchful eyes—and keep us out of trouble while we concentrate on those other chores.

Given the importance of autopilots to instrument flight in busy airspace, we should fully understand how to use them. Last month we covered some of the basics of how autopilots work and what they can do. (See “Autopilot Basics.”) Let’s now begin a two-part look at how we can best put those capabilities to use. Perhaps we’ll even pick up some tricks along the way.