I'm not sure if this is the correct forum, if not please move it. I've been following the thread about Jenny Blalock's crash and I've learned a lot about autopilots in small planes. I don't currently fly a plane with one (that I can use) but I definitely have my assumptions about them, many of which are proving to be wrong. I think the biggest assumption I had made previously was that the autopilot flies the plane pretty much like the pilot does, at least as far as trim is concerned. In other words, when the A/P is disengaged, the plane would pretty much be trimmed off. But from that topic, it seems like that isn't always the case, some autopilots just fly the elevator, so when you disengage, whatever force the A/P was exerting, is suddenly gone, and the trim "takes over" which might send you on a ride. This seems like an inherently bad design to me. Why is this allowed to persist? Something else hinted in the topic is pilots should set the trim to relieve the force on the A/P similar to how we set it to relieve force on ourselves. But how would someone do that? Do Autopilots have some kind of indicator on how much force they're exerting? I remember specifically seeing something about trim limit lights, but it seems like trim set near but not over a limit could be catastrophic too. I don't foresee myself flying a plane with a two+ axis autopilot in the near future, but I'm still eager to learn about the different ways these things work. Thank you!