industry Understanding Autopilot Upgrades S T O R Y B Y J O H N D . R U L E Y Tips, Tricks and Best Practices from the Experts “I worry that people with a little bit of knowledge can get into a lot of trouble. You need to really understand the complete system before you start making changes. Autopilots are highly integrated with the airplane.” – Bob Weber of Mayday Avionics A utopilots date back to the earliest days of aviation. Sperry’s first experimental model appeared less than 10 years after the Wright brothers’ first flight. During the years, they have become both more sophisticated and less expensive. Advanced autopilot features, such as flight director displays, GPS tracking and coupled approaches, are now common in even the smallest general aviation airplanes. Indeed, some instructors consider a working autopilot essential, if a glass panel airplane is to be flown by a single pilot under instrument flight rules. The increasing capability and decreasing cost of autopilots presents an opportunity for avionics shops. Many older airplanes were built without autopilots, and those built with older auto- 46 avionics news • october 2012