Rod
I think the latest Cirrus are even fitted with an emergency auto recovery button which levels the aircraft if you loose it
All the Gizmos are great but it makes for lazy pilots.
Most of the jets I fly are the old steam driven variety from the 70s and early 80s. I call them good for the soul aircraft.
Even with jets we take every opportunity on positioning flights with no PAX and below RVSM airspace to hand fly the whole route.
Its what I call a good for the soul exercise.
I have had a number of autopilot failures. One into Berlin with no FD meant hand flying to 200 foot O/C and 700 metre vis.
Again good for the soul!
All these systems are great but not if the pilot becomes some sort of point and go guy who sits there as a semi passeneger.
I am hardly an expert on Cirrus although I do like the aircraft and did time the roll rate 45 deg to 45 deg some time back. It was very close to a Firefly so quite nifty! I remember thinking it would be hard work flying for prolonged periods in cloud raw.
Ok for a competant pilot but not for a point and go guy! Its a Cirrus not a Mooney
Pace