Can Altitude Hold be Added to a Century 21 Autopilot?

[Speed Merchant]

A friend of mine is considering buying a 231 with a Century 21 autopilot. It doesn"t have altitude hold. Can altitude hold be added to it?

Thanks

 

[pwhicks]

Unfortunately, no. I have the same AP on our 201. Century has moved on from any enhancements to that model. 
 

The options are to add a separate system such as STEC for altitude hold  or replace the entire system. 
 

I am going the route of replacement for the Garmin GFC500 and dual 275s. None of the options are cheap and this has option has the best integration and functionality. 
 

The Century 21 also does not provide flight director information to our Aspen which is a negative. The aspen will go away in our next upgrade to the Garmin. 

[KSMooniac]

STEC has a separate altitude hold that might work. It won't fly a glideslope or climbs/descents, but will relieve the workload in cruise.

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[Speed Merchant]

1 hour ago, pwhicks said:

Unfortunately, no. I have the same AP on our 201. Century has moved on from any enhancements to that model. 
 

The options are to add a separate system such as STEC for altitude hold  or replace the entire system. 
 

I am going the route of replacement for the Garmin GFC500 and dual 275s. None of the options are cheap and this has option has the best integration and functionality. 
 

The Century 21 also does not provide flight director information to our Aspen which is a negative. The aspen will go away in our next upgrade to the Garmin. 

Thanks I will tell my friend. Any idea as to what is involved with the STEC installation?

I appreciate your help!

[Guest]

I think this is what you’re looking for.

https://sarasotaavionics.com/avionics/system-30-alt

Clarence 

[LANCECASPER]

I think this might be what you're looking for if you're adding it to another system. The cost doesn't make much sense anymore.

https://sarasotaavionics.com/avionics/pss

[jetdriven]

I’ve had one of these in my plane for  10 years and it works great with a 1-axis auto pilot. It’s about to come out for a GFC500 

[J Bird]

On 9/5/2021 at 10:00 PM, LANCECASPER said:

I think this might be what you're looking for if you're adding it to another system. The cost doesn't make much sense anymore.

https://sarasotaavionics.com/avionics/pss

This what I had in my 201 with Century 21. Don't know much about the specific cost to add or installation as it was installed when I purchased the plane. It worked really well.

[RobertGary1]

Yea. Its called a gfc 500

[Urs_Wildermuth]

On 9/5/2021 at 10:43 PM, KSMooniac said:

STEC has a separate altitude hold that might work. It won't fly a glideslope or climbs/descents, but will relieve the workload in cruise.

They actually have two. The System 30 Alt, which is just an altitude hold function and consists of a button (on/off), a servo and a pressure sensor.

The PSS 60 is a full blown vertical channel with Alt hold, GS and VS mode. If you wanna go that way, that is what I'd recommend.