One trap in the autopilot of a pointy twin I used to fly:
When fully coupled in Nav/heading, Airspeed and Altitude. If flying in turbulence the collective can, to correct an altitude excursion in an updraft, drive the collective fully down leading to very high Rotor RPM. So you went down a level of automation and flew in Nav/heading and either Airspeed OR Altitude but not both. The autopilot does not give any protection for high Rotor RPM. It was the first thing I was warned about when I got my check on type. In fact I don’t know of any autopilot that does.
They joy of punching in heading on an early Sperry without centering the heading bug first was exhilarating too. Also if you were on a heading of say 090 and ATC told you to turn right to a heading of 300 you would turn the bug right and the aircraft would start to turn right but if you spun the heading bug too fast to 300 and the aircraft heading had not yet passed 120 Mr. autopilot would decide it would be quicker to turn left to 300 and reverse the turn. The Sperry wanted to turn the fastest way to the selected heading.
Last edited by albatross; 1st August 2022 at 19:53.