Autopilot use on practical test?

airguy

airguy

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airguy
So here's a question for you CFII's and examiners - when giving the practical to your IR student in his own aircraft with IFR GPS panel and coupled AP, how much actual AP time are you going to put the student through? The full monty or just enough to demonstrate familiarity with it? I always assumed that the examiner would not let me "cheat" by using the AP until and unless I demonstrated I could hand-fly if the AP failed - what's the real world picture here?

I'm not IR rated, but expect to start that way this summer, just want to know what to expect.
 
look in the PTS. If I were your CFII I would expect you to be proficient in using the autopilot and you should expect to demonstrate its use on your checkride.
 
Last gouge I've seen from pilot candidates in my area flying the G1000 airplanes that all have autopilots has been:

For privates:
Turn on the autopilot.
Make it follow the heading bug
Make it hold an altitude
Couple it to the NAV source.
Make it climb or descend to a preselected altitude at a normal rate.
Show me three ways to disconnect the autopilot.

For instrument:
All of the above, plus:
Fly a coupled RNAV approach, either using vertical guidance or using the VS mode for one without vertical guidance. Disconnect the autopilot at the proper time.

The examiners on the instrument ride like to see students "bug" everything on the G1000 (heading and altitude) even if they aren't using the autopilot, but it's not a fail if they don't. One of the questions in the oral has to do with the limitations section of the autopilot flight manual supplement. "When can you engage the autopilot after takeoff, and when must you disengage it on approach"? Gotta answer that correctly and follow it on the ride itself.
 
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tonycondon said:
look in the PTS. If I were your CFII I would expect you to be proficient in using the autopilot and you should expect to demonstrate its use on your checkride.
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+1. Expect a coupled approach on the checkride. On mine, the DPE advised to use it unless he said otherwise. In fact he said if I didn't use it, he would ask me to use it at an inopportune time.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
+1. Expect a coupled approach on the checkride. On mine, the DPE advised to use it unless he said otherwise. In fact he said if I didn't use it, he would ask me to use it at an inopportune time.
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That seems to be the norm more and more. I just called one of my DEs and he says that in an airplane with a good autopilot that he wants to see the pilot using it as the normal mode of operation, and he'll "disable" it when needed to see the pilot's airplane handling skills. If the pilot doesn't "like" to use the autopilot but is competent with it, he'll pass and get some encouragement to use it more often as part of the debrief. This particular DE is a former airline pilot and is a serious believer that an autopilot reduces workload and increases safety margins when used correctly.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
+1. Expect a coupled approach on the checkride. On mine, the DPE advised to use it unless he said otherwise. In fact he said if I didn't use it, he would ask me to use it at an inopportune time.
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Interesting....I heard the opposite around here in San Diego when I did my IR ride back in 2009. Examiner wanted to see you hand fly everything. He was okay with putting it on A/P to do stuff like change approach plates and basically use it as an extra set of hands, but that was about it.
 
I'm currently riding with a fella that's a DE in the Falcon Easy 2000 (I'm not flying that plane); went to a sim session ten days ago, they want the AP engaged shortly after departure and used until on short final approach. Of course, they will do some hand flying, but they strongly emphasize putting the AP to full use when it's available. The AP on that plane shows flight path, not just attitude; wonderful stuff.

Best,

Dave
 
I had an IPC a couple of years ago where I never used the autopilot, even though the airplane has a good one. I figured it would fail as soon as I turned it on.

I was critiqued for that. The CFII said, correctly, that its an important safety tool and should be used where appropriate.

When I really fly I use it a lot, and in fact consider it to be mandatory for any flight that might involve significant time in IMC. I was glad to see that perhaps GA is moving away from the old 'needle-ball-airspeed-ndb' school of thought.
 
On my checkride the DPE asked to see the autopilot once. It did it's usual +/- 40 altitude hold (which is what it's performance specs say it should do) and he said it wasn't good and not to use it again.

My last IPC, I hand flew first three approaches and used the autopilot while setting up for the ILS. CFII commented on how much better things went when I used the autopilot...

I consider the autopilot mandatory for single pilot IMC. It's just that much easier and safer.
 
TMetzinger said:
That seems to be the norm more and more. I just called one of my DEs and he says that in an airplane with a good autopilot that he wants to see the pilot using it as the normal mode of operation, and he'll "disable" it when needed to see the pilot's airplane handling skills. If the pilot doesn't "like" to use the autopilot but is competent with it, he'll pass and get some encouragement to use it more often as part of the debrief. This particular DE is a former airline pilot and is a serious believer that an autopilot reduces workload and increases safety margins when used correctly.
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That varies between examihers. Some want max use, others want it used only when it makes sense based on workload, e.g., when copying and figuring an unpublished holding clearance.

Either way, the PTS says the precision approach and the partial panel nonprecision approach must be hand-flown, and that's two out of three. OTOH, there's nothing that says the second nonprecision approach (which must be done with autopilot if you have one) must be RNAV/GPS if you have GPS. They can give you an RNAV(GPS) partial panel, and then a VOR with the a/p if they so choose.
 
The examiner will expect you to be knowledgeable about, and demonstrate the use of, anything installed in the airplane.

Bob Gardner
 
TMetzinger said:
That seems to be the norm more and more. I just called one of my DEs and he says that in an airplane with a good autopilot that he wants to see the pilot using it as the normal mode of operation, and he'll "disable" it when needed to see the pilot's airplane handling skills. If the pilot doesn't "like" to use the autopilot but is competent with it, he'll pass and get some encouragement to use it more often as part of the debrief. This particular DE is a former airline pilot and is a serious believer that an autopilot reduces workload and increases safety margins when used correctly.
Click to expand...

That's me - I use the AP on almost every flight leg, I absolutely love it and I've got the KLN94 operation pretty well down cold to feed it data, I just wasn't sure about what to expect from the CFII and examiner. I flew too many hours in beater rentals with no or inop AP's, now that I have a good one I use it whenever I can.
 
Canadian experience: On my recent bi-annual exam in my DA40 with G1000 / KAP 140, my examiner had me fly (1) a combo autopilot/hand flown NDB hold, (2) an autopilot GPS approach (3) an autopilot ILS to minimums and then (4) a hand flown ILS to minimums. . This seems to be a Transport Canada mandated requirement.

An interesting quirk was checking to see if you checked the lat/lon of key approach points on the flight plan display. And of course RAIM for each approach.
 
I used it for the hold on the departure procedure so I could get the post takeoff checks done (adjusting mixture, etc...). The examiner said nothing about that. Later during the partial panel (which happened to be an GPS) approach, he quizzed me that if the vacuum died what would happen to my AP. I pointed out that if the vacuum died, the HSI wouldn't even have been affected, but if the HSI was out the GPSS following wouldn't be affected.
He suggested I turn it on, but as gusty as it was after a few minutes he suggested I could do better hand flying it (and I did).
 
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