Interestingly, throughout the 8 or so hours of instrument flying I've done in 14D, it was tonight's VFR flight that put the nail in the coffin about really wanting to get a Digitrak installed soon. Flying through the desert on a moonless night, you're almost *more* dependent on instruments than you would be in clouds during the day. At least during the day you have a hint of the sun brightness gradient, which does provide some cues as to what's up and what's down. But at night, desert, no moon, forget about it. And it was bumpy. Granted, I was never more than 3 miles or so from I-15, but following a straight line pointing forward doesn't really give you any sense of roll. I cruised at 10,500' as well -- 8500' would have been more than enough for the terrain, but I felt more comfortable up a little higher. I have no oxygen, though. I didn't feel the least bit hypoxic (I'm pretty well in tune with it normally), but I wasn't totally immune to the relative deficiency of O2 up there. An autopilot would have made it a much easier flight.
I could fly this thing by hand all day in the soup if I had to (wouldn't want to, of course), but a bumpy "blind" night flight like this almost had me ordering the Digitrak as soon as I got home. I don't mean to overstate it...I was fine. But let's just say I'm glad I have some instrument skills, because I definitely used them tonight.
I had been planning on next March...that's when I figured I'd order a TruTrak Digitrak single axis autopilot (no need for altitude hold in my opinion -- if the wings are level, the worst you'll get for pitch changes will be correctable with fingertip pressure). I figured I'd get it then and install it when I'm doing the annual condition inspection, when everything will be open anyway. But now I'm thinking I might splurge and pop the sucker on the credit card sooner rather than later. Maybe a few more poker tournaments like the one the other day and I can buy the A/P on winnings...yeah, royt.