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Thread: Autopilot or not

  1. #11
    Senior Member Springloaded's Avatar
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    Default Re: Autopilot or not

    Have you considered the safety involved in a AP. I use mine regularly when the weather is less then favorable. Lets you look for towers and such with you having to worry about flying the airplane. That was one of the first things I put on my plane before I went to AK. I once flew into a cloud in the mountains at low altitude. I decided the safest thing to do was climb. 15-20 min later I broke out on top at 8000’. Unfortunately my auto pilot was broke. I hadn’t flown IMC in years. I had to convince my self to trust my instruments which was extremely difficult because I never use them. It wasn’t fun and I would have given anything for my AP. I ended up at 11000’ to stay on top. I got a pop up IFR and got back down 2 1/2 hrs later. So my point is one day you might just need it to get out of a bind. Things happen fast sometimes and you’ll wish you had one.
    Chuck
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    Last edited by Springloaded; 11-02-2018 at 04:36 AM.
    Chuck Kinberger
    Southern Cubs
    Florida Cubcrafter Sales
    Jupiter Fl.
    Pa11890ck@gmail.com
    You can sit at home & hear the News or get out there & be the News

  2. #12
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    Default Re: Autopilot or not

    Quote Originally Posted by Springloaded View Post
    Have you considered the safety involved in a AP. I use mine regularly when the weather is less then favorable. Lets you look for towers and such with you having to worry about flying the airplane. That was one of the first things I put on my plane before I went to AK. I once flew into a cloud in the mountains at low altitude. I decided the safest thing to do was climb. 15-20 min later I broke out on top at 8000’. Unfortunately my auto pilot was broke. I hadn’t flown IMC in years. I had to convince my self to trust my instruments which was extremely difficult because I never use them. It wasn’t fun and I would have given anything for my AP. I ended up at 11000’ to stay on top. I got a pop up IFR and got back down 2 1/2 hrs later. So my point is one day you might just need it to get out of a bind. Things happen fast sometimes and you’ll wish you had one.
    Chuck
    You make a great point!

  3. #13
    Administrator Jon Delamarter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Autopilot or not

    Here at the factory, we frequently hear people say, "An autopilot? In a Cub? That's nuts!". My standard response is, "Make one cross-country flight of an hour or more in one of our Cubs with an autopilot and tell me what you think." Without exception, they come back and say something like, "I'll never own another airplane without an autopilot."
    Jon Delamarter
    Customer Support Manager
    Cub Crafters, Inc.
    jond@cubcrafters.com
    Office (509)367-5200

  4. #14
    Senior Member ceslaw's Avatar
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    Default Re: Autopilot or not

    Darn, can't find the "LIKE" button . . . . .

  5. #15
    Senior Member c130jake's Avatar
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    Default Re: Autopilot or not

    How hard is it to retro fit the garmin servos after the build?. I have the wiring rolled up behind the left side panel.

    Where do the servos mount and what type of connection to the cables do they use?

    EX1 with G3x touch.

    Jake

    Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
    Jake
    Finished CCEX N96FV!

  6. #16
    Senior Member ceslaw's Avatar
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    Default Re: Autopilot or not

    Jake

    Here is a post on installing the autopilot servos.

    Control is with the G3X, so no additional box is needed.

    Putting in the servos should be doable. Wiring could take some effort although if a harness is already in place it will make life easier. You will need appropriate panel switch / breaker for servos and kill switch on stick

    Spent some time this past Saturday exploring the autopilot functions and fine tuning it. It is a pretty impressive and capable system. Surprisingly I had not paid much attention to the autopilot until recently; now I am really glad it is there. Going forward I suspect it will get used a lot.

    I’m sure Mitch can give you some good guidance

    Chuck

    http://forum.cubcrafters.com/showthr...ll=1#post14253
    Last edited by ceslaw; 11-20-2018 at 04:01 AM.

  7. #17
    Senior Member c130jake's Avatar
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    Default Re: Autopilot or not

    Chuck, install was easier than it looked at first. Servo install was easy once I looked at Dave Embrys post on it. Hardest part of wiring was soldering the can bus wires to the existing ones and removing the D-sub pins from the connector. Ground tested ok. Do you have torque and gain settings that work? I only had time for a short flight yesterday and it seems pretty sluggish.

    Gain was at 1 and torque at 50%.

    I will mess with it Saturday after I get back from work.

    Thanks.

    Jake

    Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
    Jake
    Finished CCEX N96FV!

  8. #18
    Senior Member
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    Default Re: Autopilot or not

    Jake. Here are the setting I’ve got on mine now that works good for me. It’s easy in flight just to pop the menu up and make some changes and see how you like it on the fly. You just press the MENU button twice, then SETUP and then AUTOPILOT.

    Increase gain for faster response to smaller changes and reduce torque so that just enough to move the servos and not much more than required so you can overpower it easier.

    So so if your seems sluggish, increase the gain.


    1132BBE6-2DAB-404F-A4E4-30854F5033A0.jpg


    69EB626F-5C4D-49F1-B043-AA72500A8AB8.jpg

    Quote Originally Posted by c130jake View Post
    Chuck, install was easier than it looked at first. Servo install was easy once I looked at Dave Embrys post on it. Hardest part of wiring was soldering the can bus wires to the existing ones and removing the D-sub pins from the connector. Ground tested ok. Do you have torque and gain settings that work? I only had time for a short flight yesterday and it seems pretty sluggish.

    Gain was at 1 and torque at 50%.

    I will mess with it Saturday after I get back from work.

    Thanks.

    Jake

    Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
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    Last edited by Daveembry; 05-15-2019 at 09:19 AM.
    Dave Embry
    "You only live once.......but if you do it right.........once is enough."..

  9. #19
    Senior Member c130jake's Avatar
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    Default Re: Autopilot or not

    Thanks, I will try that and go from there.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
    Jake
    Finished CCEX N96FV!

  10. #20
    Senior Member ceslaw's Avatar
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    Default Re: Autopilot or not

    My settings are similar to Dave's.

    You can fine tune it in flight by going to the autopilot menu, which is the second menu in.

    Now a question for those using the Garmin autopilot. On occasion mine will disengage for no apparent reason. A minute or two later I can reengage it and it is fine again. Have not spent any time trying to figure out why, but was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience?

    Chuck

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