Does anyone know if an standard autopilot unit (That is one from a fixed wing a/c)will work in a helicopter?I'm working on a Bell 222 panel but don't have that much spare time, so I don't want to waste it experimenting with a standard unit if any of you already know it won't work....Any help would be greatly appreciated....Cheers//Tonni

have you tried using the one from the gmax dauphin?Alan

No I haven't I'll take a look at it....Thanks//Tonni

I've tried adding it to the Gazelle (aware it would result in loss of the original panel in the altered version) but all it did was lock in the "Pause" mode.I suspect it had something to do with the way the landing gear are handled in the Dauphin. The Gazelle, of course, has skids.It's a brilliant autopilot, and it takes skill and practice to operate it properly. In fact, I still can't quite get mine to "TDWN" or transition down. It will "Arm" but do nothing more. I have to make the transition manually but with the autopilot by engaging HHT, and then HOV, and then land. I have also added the Dauphin to my FSNAV list of aircraft but have yet to fly an approach with it. It cruises just fine. But I drift off-topic. ;-)Cheers!

The default autopilot wont function at all with helicopters because it works using the trim controls - missing from FS helis. As mentioned above, Antti's autopilot is by far the best available for helicopters. You'd need to get his permission to use it; if you can incorporate it at all - Its a fairly complex piece of coding. There is another heli autopilot I'm aware of. It works, although its not up to the standard of Antti's gauge. You'll find it on the panel of the new German made beta EC135 - see thread elsewhere on this forum. That one has the advantage of being simpler & probably easier to incorporate into another panel. Also, the author is probably easier to get hold of. so you can ask permission to use it.Hope that helpsLonelyplanetXO

Thanks for the replys guys...I looked at Anitt's Dauphin one yesterday... Seems a bit complicated to me.. I'm no genius as far as gauges go.... (pure bred amateur!)...Pitty... Looks a lot like the unit in the Bell 222 photos I have...I'll try and check out the one from the EC135....Cheers//Tonni

Wwwaaaaayyyy back when the original Dauphin came out, myself and a couple of others here messed around with putting the Autopilot into other helis, and it worked! I have no real skill with making/editing panels, I just got cfgedit and transferred all the gauges from the Dauphin onto the background bmp for Alan Devins Bell222... now I would show you, but unfortunatley I had a major overhaul of my system and foolishly deleted it (doh!) and have never got around to trying it again! I realise that using all the Dauphin gauges was somewhat unrealistic.. but hey! it worked.Best of luck!Alun

You can use Antti's autopilot on any helicopter, but (and here is the catch) they will all fly like the Dauphin. I've installed it into a few helicopters (Dirk's original Puma, a Dauphin 1 and the Bell 222) In the Dauphin I's case I copied Antti's panel into the DauI's panel folder and copy and pasted all the lights and contact points into a copy of Antti's Dauphin aircraft.cfg file and changed the heading at the top of cfg and copied the new cfg and the air file into the DauI folder and voila. . . A tail-dragging autopilot working Dauphin I. It's a bit crude but it worked. Crash