![]() Attitude APs use an attitude gyro with electric pick offs for roll and pitch sensing. In general, there are two types of autopilots: Attitude autopilots and rate-based autopilots. If your hangar mates Century 41 had a trim switch failure and you have the same vintage autopilot, dont be surprised to have the same problem.Heres a short list of the bad things that can happen to popular autopilots and what to do when its your turn, plus a primer on autopilot basics. Many autopilots have characteristic failure modes. With older models-Pipers AutoControl series and so on-that may not be the case. The truth is that late model autopilots-the Bendix/King KAPs and KFC or the Century 41s-are almost always worth repairing because replacing them is expensive and you wont get additional reliability. ![]() At some point, you have to ask yourself if the box is worth fussing with one more time or replacing. Autopilots have a deserved reputation for being difficult and expensive to repair. Maybe its just a corroded connection or a tired servo. Then all of a sudden, the pitch control goes a little crazy or the needle tracking gets sloppy. Among all the things that can break in an airplane, autopilots are the most perplexing and potentially expensive, short of the engine.For years, they labor without complaint, dutifully holding heading and minding altitude.
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