How much is an autopilot worth?

[Kai]

As most of you are novice pilots, you need to hand fly the airplane to improve your skills which most of you lack to begin with.

Larry, while there is some truth to the fact that hand flying skills are important, you forget to mention how many times an AP has done a great job helping a SPIFR to stay safe while he was busy with other cockpit tasks.

Personally, I find it difficult to judge the skills of my fellow pilots, but there must be a good reason why Diamond pilots have among the lowest accident rates in GA. Btw, not *most* of us are novice pilots. We *all* are. You just never stop learning. Low time pilots sometimes crash because of lacking experience. And the experienced pilots do, because they believe they were experienced.

[Kai]

20-50k is about what I was guessing.... maybe even as much as 70k?

The cheapest FPs without an AP but still a few hundred hours of engine life can be found for $90-100k. The cheapest DA40 with G1000 and AP can be obtained for $110k.

So if you are thinking of resale value, you will of course get less money for it and it might be harder to find a buyer. If you think of safety and badly want an AP, it will definitely be cheaper selling and buying another one.

Many years ago I was quoted €50k (yes, that is in Euros) for a retrofit of a GFC700 but didn't go for it. It just seemed too expensive as I would only recover a fraction in resale value.

[rwtucker]

There are autopilots and autopilots. The GFC700 is the real deal. The heading autopilot on my Dakota is next to worthless. Not worth the reduction in useful load.

[Lance Murray]

Those that are singing the praises of the GFC 700 over the KAP 140 are correct in that the GRC 700 is superior. However the KAP 140 gets the job done 100%. Yes the GFC700 is rock solid. But it does essentially the same thing as the KAP140. I have had both. I am fine with the KAP140. I do miss the FLCH function and the FD of the GFC. But I get to the same destination with equal safety on both auto pilots. I qualify this with my over 10,000 hours of experience flying all types of aircraft big and small.

Unless the aircraft is to be used exclusively for initial training I wouldn't consider the non-AP airplane.

[Charbie]

After having recently been through my first plane search/ purchase, I never considered a plane without an auto pilot. I believe your resale market pool of potential buyers diminishes substantially without one.

[tonylee]

I bought my 2005 DA40 two years ago. I never considered a plane without autopilot. That being said from what I saw of the price difference I would not add an aftermarket autopilot. It would be much cheaper to sell the plane for a new one. It's 24k just to go update to WAAS. I think auto pilot would be worse.

[Colin]

Nigel used to be on this board as a DA40 pilot. When he was buying his plane directly from Diamond in London they said they were about to change autopilots from the KAP140 to the GFC700 and if he bought it without the KAP140 he could put the GFC700 in later.

And then it was a $50k quote to install it. I think the cost continued to climb. He eventually gave up and accepted being a really good hand-flying pilot.

[Nigel]

Nigel used to be on this board as a DA40 pilot. When he was buying his plane directly from Diamond in London they said they were about to change autopilots from the KAP140 to the GFC700 and if he bought it without the KAP140 he could put the GFC700 in later.

And then it was a $50k quote to install it. I think the cost continued to climb. He eventually gave up and accepted being a really good hand-flying pilot.

Yes... and since I am not an IFR pilot it suited me fine for 9 years. Several trips to the Bahamas and Nova Scotia and all I would sometimes wish for is a simple wing leveller so I could occasionally look at a chart or other item. My DA40 was rigged perfectly and was a breeze to fly by hand.

I had an amazing, inexpensive autopilot from TruTrack in my previous plane, (non certified) Of course, no simple TSO'd autopilot will ever be certified for the DA40.