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We Get Letters

Testimonials are one of the most effective sales tools you can use as you promote S-TEC autopilots, because they reflect not what we say, BUT what users say about our produts. The following is a letter we received from Greg Wright in Kinsale, Virginia.

On July 10, 1999, my brother and I left Tappahannock, Virginia enroute to Gastonia, North Carolina to deliver my nephew to the National Beta Club Convention. I knew when I left that I needed to hurry there and back to avoid the afternoon thunderboomers that are so prevalent in our part of the country in the summertime. As usual, FSS was forecasting these conditions on the day of the flight. The trip south was beautiful with us at 8500 feet looking down on the cumulus clouds that were beginning to form. We tried to make the turnaround as quickly as possible, but it still took over an hour to deliver my nephew to the site of the convention, check weather, and get back in the air. The weather folks said that there were buildups to the west of Gastonia, but that our route to the northeast was clear at the time of the briefing. Nevertheless, I filed an IFR Flight Plan to assure myself of the services of ATC. Once I leveled off at our assigned altitude of 9,000 feet, we noticed that there were cumulus clouds ahead of us that were higher than we were. Still, our flight was perfect and the air was smooth as silk even though we had to ask for 11,000 to stay on top. Naturally, the S-TEC System Thirty that I had installed in my Skylane the previous winter was working to perfection while tracking the route in the Apollo GX 60 and holding the altitude as required.

Things started to go to pieces in a hurry when we asked ATC for lower as we neared Richmond and started to descend to Tappahannock. As we approached Richmond, I looked at the Strikefinder and saw that there were cells to both our left and right, but that straight ahead appeared to be clear. What I saw out the windshield confirmed the cells to the left and right, but there was also a cumulus cloud straight ahead. In my innocence, I pushed the altitude hold button off to start our descent straight ahead and into the peaceful looking cloud in front of us. I had stabilized the trim for a 500 feet rate of descent and was passing through 9,000 feet when we entered the cloud. You wouldn't believe how quickly things changed. Immediately, I saw the VSI peg at 2,000 fpm climb. I pulled the power back and shoved down on the yoke and was still going up at over 1,500 fpm. We were on an express elevator that wasn't going to end until we popped out of the top of that cloud. I remember wondering at what altitude that would happen and if I'd still be able to breathe. Thank goodness I had had the foresight to reduce the IAS to maneuvering speed before I had started the descent or we might have lost a wing or two. The turbulence was so bad that I couldn't hold the PTT switch down to tell ATC that I couldn't control my altitude and that I wanted to make a 180 degree turn. The response from ATC was that I was badly broken up and that he couldn't understand what I was saying. By this time, I wasn't worried about what ATC said, but wanted to get out of there. I immediately used the DG bug on the S-TEC Thirty to reverse course. At one time I noticed that the attitude indicator showed that we were in a bank of close to 60 degrees, but the S-TEC immediately brought us back to a standard rate turn. I figured that I was inside the cloud (and turbulence) for about 15 seconds before I started my 180-degree turn. The turn should have taken one minute with another 15 seconds to reach the trailing edge of the cloud. Undoubtedly, that was the longest minute and a half of my life. I would like to think that I could have handled this situation on my own, but one thing I do know is that I could not have handeled that course reversal as easily as did my S-TEC. Once we made the reversal and exited the cloud we were in perfectly smooth air once again. However, when I looked at my altimeter, it was reading 12,500 feet. We had climbed over 3,000 feet during ninety seconds and that was with the power off and the yoke forward.

When I had told my wife that I wanted to install an autopilot the previous year, I remember telling her that if it just saved my life just once, it would be worth a heck of a lot more than I paid for it. I think my S-TEC possibly saved both of our lives during that minute and a half. My hat goes off to the folks at S-TEC for the fine product that they have made.