I guess what I was going to add to the original thread was that while in general I defended the OP's point of view in terms of the Jepp chart being misleading on the separate point of the autopilot I wouldn't personally have kept it engaged beyond the MAP. Now I don't know anything about the PC12 and I'm not going to tell him how to fly his plane but I personally wouldn't do that when flying myself in whatever that might be.
My main experience is with the G1000 system and Garmin autopilot. It is capable of taking one down to 200ft on the ILS if so desired. But while the terrain awareness system (if you have it as an option) will scream at you while heading for the ground, in V/S mode you will crash just as hard as with any other older autopilot if you forget about it...
In general I would only use the ALT, HDG and NAV hold modes for enroute flying and FLC (which is an airspeed hold) to change altitude. I was never taught this as such since PPL or indeed IR training often doesn't talk about autopilot philosophy at all but I just worked out that in general one doesn't use the autopilot close to the ground unless it is locked onto the ILS or heading for/already at a pre-selected alt.
Last edited by Contacttower; 17th Sep 2012 at 07:01.