A miracle cure

[Geoff Quickfall]

Climbed to 35,000 feet in the 737-200 without the autopilot. At level off I reached up to engage the 2 Autopilot switches (single bar).

They would not engage. The last thing you want to do at 35,000 is fly an airplane without even a rudimentary autopilot for more than 1 hour.

I looked at the captain and he told me to kick the side panel on the mid console at knee level.

I did, then he said, try the switches again.

THEY WORKED.

Now for the reason. The switches were remote sending a signal to the solenoids. Over the years, dust encroaches on the solenoid contacts. By kicking the panel right were the solenoids live knocked the dust off the contacts and allowed the circuit to complete.

As an aside, no autopilot at 35,000 feet and asked to maintain that at plus or minus 100’ without the autopilot is akin to sitting on a large beachball and balancing for the next 5 hours. Can’t be done, having done it at 25,000 feet and for some reason it is no contrary to the FAA regs.

Cheers