To my surprise, the autopilot started working again and worked all the way to KTYS and on my return trip to M01 again 3 days later. That same day, I flew to see if I could get it to work in the air and could not get it to work.Ī few days later, on Wednesday,, I took off to fly from M01 in Memphis to Knoxville, TN (KTYS) for Thanksgiving. He asked me to check it on the ground with the engine off, but avionics on, by engaging the autopilot, setting it to heading bug and turning the heading bug to see if I could see the ailerons move or hear the servo motor moving. The individual I spoke with seemed to suggest that it might be the roll servo (possibly time for an overhaul). We also tried NAV mode and GPSS and neither would work.Īfter landing, I called an avionics shop that used to work on our old plane (Heath Aviation in Winona, MS (5A6). We tried to reset it a number of times over the course of an 1.5 hrs in the air or so, but could not get it to work. Shortly after takeoff, he attempted to engage the heading mode (straight ahead) and altitude hold, and we quickly realized and banking right turn, which was clearly not in the direction the heading bug. My next flight was a VFR flight (maybe 50 miles) with my partner. I disengage it and re-engage it, and then it worked fine. At that time, I noticed when turning on the autopilot for a practice approach that started with a turn to the right to intercept the final approach course, that it did not engage properly or that it commenced a turn to the right more than necessary. We took delivery of the plane in August and flew it with the autopilot working without issue until sometime in mid-November.
STEC 50 AUTOPILOT TROUBLESHOOTING FULL
The only thing was that when the autopilot went to make a turn, it turned it bit slow (e.g., maybe half standard rate instead of full standard rate). Prior to us taking delivery, however, the dealer had someone in North Carolina look at it and make some adjustments, and they were able to get it to start working again. When we purchase it from Carolina Aviation, it was discovered in the pre-buy inspection that the autopilot was having trouble tracking its course in NAV (or GPSS) mode. We recently acquired the aircraft in August of 2019. My plane partner and I have an 1977 Beechcraft A36 with an S-Tec 55X Autopilot.