Out of eight school/club aircraft I’ve flown at EGTR (Elstree), only one had operational autopilot (two-axis).
I’ve got a “modern” AP connected to my GRT EFIS and it’s very good. It flies far better than I can. I’ve heard the same from the guys with Garmin and Dynon.
Mine is the first aircraft I’ve flown with a working AP, even in CH. On every checkout in the last 40+ years w/aircraft that had an AP, the instructor said “don’t touch it – it will kill you” – as said by others, perhaps because they didn’t take the time to learn it, or simply didn’t want to take the time to teach it to me in case it did cause a problem.
An INOP A/P should be marked as such, and the relevant circuit breaker should be pulled with a ring placed on it so it can’t be re set.
Actually I wonder, is there nowhere in regulation a provision of inop equipment on board an airplane?
I used to think that “inop” stickers on broken instruments is something which is used to mark MEL items, which get fixed at the next opportuniy. That some planes have “permanent” inop equipment i something I never understood.
I think that a reasonable way to motivate people to fix things is to set a time limit for how long an item may be labled inop before it either has to be repaired or removed.
The other bit which annoys me quite a bit are people who fly airplanes but donˆt bother to learn how the stuff on board works. Or even what it is.i wonder how these people ever passed transition training onto the airplane and how owners let people fly who donˆt know the first thing about what they are doing. I do mandate trainsition training for everyone who flies my airplane and we make darn sure that they know all of the equpment and how to use it. We also make sure they know performance and weight and balance.
I thought that should be normal standard for everyone flying a particular airplane. But obviously it is not.
The “something” about the hobby in my case is that I appreciate having lots of aircraft out there in all levels of condition, preferably rows of them to select from in any condition from as-new to unflown for decades. More planes than are needed in active service. That way anybody can buy one and make it their own over time, if they wish. It’s one of the main attractions to being involved in aviation for me, relative to having a lesser number of planes available. Mine was flown only once a year or so for several years before I bought it, because it needed repairs and wasn’t really airworthy (so I found). I was very happy to find it.
Re autopilots specifically, I’ve so far selected and bought two planes that had no autopilot. I have never flown a plane with an autopilot, and cannot myself find any enthusiasm for buying or maintaining one. While it may be ‘essential’ for some to have one, for my use it’s like having a cruise control on a motorcycle (I have one so equipped by the factory)… gingerbread that I’d rather not have installed.
It is economically irrational. A well presented squawk free, with good quality maintenance logs, adds a significant amount of value. I would suggest the bid/offer for a poorly presented, but otherwise sound, aircraft with scratchy logs may be as much as 50% (goggle eyes)
One thing which most amazes me about GA is peoples’ tolerance for flying aircraft in absolutely awful condition. There must be “something” about this hobby… 
I was actually wondering where I heard that (back to the kitchen )
😄😄😄
