Autopilot installation, flight test

Finally everything lined up and I could perform the autopilot testing. I could not get the trim to work properly thru the autopilot but as it is recommended to do the first test without autotrim, I performed the other ground tests, disabled the autotrim function and then went flying.

First I flew around with just the flight director enabled, after being satisfied that it guided me correctly I climbed to safe altitude.

At 3000 feet I had one finger on the cws/ap disconnect button, the other at the AP controller, I took special care to where the AP servo breaker was and then activated the autopilot. At first I just had it in heading and alt mode. verified that I could disable the AP with a push on the AP/CWS button on my stick.

I then tried some turns just turning the heading knob, did some VS climbs and descends, happy that it captured my set altitude. With these tests done, I flew with less concerns and got down lower.

I have now done altitude captures from high and low, altitude hold directly. only done VS climb and descents so far. For the horizontal part, I have done heading and nav from the GTN625.

All have worked great. The autopilot is precise and very smooth, I think I will set it to be a little more aggressive later on, but for a first test with just the recommended values from Vans I think the result was amazing. It is already better that 90% of all other autopilot equipped aircrafts I have flown :D