KAP 150 Questions

[gsxrpilot]

I'm looking at a 252 that has a KAP 150 with Yaw damper. I'm not familiar with this autopilot and so have some questions. I currently have an Stec 30/altitude hold in my C.

Can I assume the KAP 150 is an upgrade/improvement over the Stec 30 I have now?

Am I correct in understanding that the KAP 150 does not have a Flight Director feature?

Does the KAP 150 include an altitude hold feature?

Can GPSS be added to the KAP 150? Can altitude pre-select be added to the KAP 150?

What is the purpose of the Yaw damper? Is Yaw a big problem?

Can the KAP 150 intercept and fly a coupled approach?

 

Thanks,

[gsengle]

I'm guessing the KAP 150 is like my KFC 150 just without the flight director. They are attitude based and are awesome. Yes there is altitude hold,not sure why anyone would bother with a yaw damper though... Maybe on a v tail Bonanza...

Found this:

http://www.mwaugh.com/kap-150-auto-pilot-training-notes/

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[gsengle]

GPSS just acts like an automated heading bug so yes, and personally I feel that the alititude preselect while nice, is just one more thing to break.

Has the king hsi too?

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[gsxrpilot]

Just now, gsengle said:

GPSS just acts like an automated heading bug so yes, and personally I feel that the alititude preselect while nice, is just one more thing to break.

Has the king hsi too?

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Thanks for the info and the link above.  Yes it has the King KCS-55A HSI.  And a 530 WAAS GPS.

[gsengle]

Sounds like a good set up. Any link/photo?

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[DonMuncy]

Sounds like the only other thing you need is to add the GPSS. I have the DAC International, GDC31. Not too expensive and works beautifully.

[donkaye, MCFI]

40 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

I'm looking at a 252 that has a KAP 150 with Yaw damper. I'm not familiar with this autopilot and so have some questions. I currently have an Stec 30/altitude hold in my C.

Can I assume the KAP 150 is an upgrade/improvement over the Stec 30 I have now?

Am I correct in understanding that the KAP 150 does not have a Flight Director feature?

Does the KAP 150 include an altitude hold feature?

Can GPSS be added to the KAP 150? Can altitude pre-select be added to the KAP 150?

What is the purpose of the Yaw damper? Is Yaw a big problem?

Can the KAP 150 intercept and fly a coupled approach?

 

Thanks,

The KAP 150 is a very good AP.  As mentioned, it does not have a Flight Director.  it does have altitude hold.  GPSS can be added to it with the DAC 31, about 2K in cost.  The Yaw Damper damps motion around the vertical axis.  It's not really needed in the Mooney that doesn't have the tendency to "fishtail", but it is nice to have.  It will intercept and fly a coupled approach.  If you had bought my KEA 130A altimeter and KAS 297B altitude preselect module a couple of years ago, then you would be able to have altitude preselect, but they are long gone.  The altimeter is so expensive because of its grey code output as to preclude purchasing it in conjunction with the KAS 297B.  It would be cheaper to put in a G500 and GAD43e than to buy that old technology.  The S-Tec 30 being a rate based AP has a "softer" ride than the attitude based KAP 150.

[LANCECASPER]

Here's the POH supplement for the Yaw Damper that was on an M20K (Encore) that I owned.

M20K Yaw damper.pdf

[flyboy0681]

Hate to dredge up an old subject here, but the training notes link states the following: " The A/P will follow a glideslope as long as the glideslope is captured from below and the A/P is in APR mode. ". Truth be told, it will capture the GS from above as well, how much above I don't know, but two weeks ago I was under the hood and shot a practice approach where the GS bars were a couple of degrees above and the KAP 150 successfully descended to capture it.

[N601RX]

The problem with this is that on an ILS system with the glideslope at 3 deg the ground antenna also produces a second glideslope lobe at 9 deg as well as others at 6 deg increments.  In between the 3 deg and 9 deg lobe there is a reversed lobe where you are receiving half the signal from the 9 deg lobe and half from the 3 degree lobe. This causes the cdi needle to reverse as well as the autopilot inputs to reverse.  An Up input becomes a Down input.