Speed Merchant Posted September 5, 2021 Report Posted September 5, 2021 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 Posted September 5, 2021 Report Posted September 5, 2021 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 Posted September 5, 2021 Report Posted September 5, 2021 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. Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
Speed Merchant Posted September 6, 2021 Author Report Posted September 6, 2021 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 Posted September 6, 2021 Report Posted September 6, 2021 I think this is what you’re looking for. https://sarasotaavionics.com/avionics/system-30-alt Clarence
LANCECASPER Posted September 6, 2021 Report Posted September 6, 2021 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 1
jetdriven Posted September 6, 2021 Report Posted September 6, 2021 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 1
J Bird Posted September 11, 2021 Report Posted September 11, 2021 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.
Urs_Wildermuth Posted September 11, 2021 Report Posted September 11, 2021 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.
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