MD11 help

[MrSpeaker 122]

Bear with me I have alot to learn. I have been reading the tutorial and going over things, I have alot of questions but will try to just get a few answered at a time. (1) During taxi it say to arm the AutoFlight. It also says during take off to engage it again at around 400ft. When I do this it shuts the autopilot off. (2) Say Im flying online and instead of a SID I have to fly a RW heading and then ATC is going to vector me around before telling me to head direct to my first waypoint. Do I just use the Heading and VS to handle things I can't press the PROF button because thats kinda controlling both LNAV and VNAV just want to know what others do in this situation. (3) Final question for today I can't seem to get it to save a Cold and Dark setup I have to start the fight then load the Cold and Dark panel, I tried saving panel config but nothing. Thanks for any input you pro's can provide, I see this is going to take a bit to get used to. ThanksIan

[Check_Airman 3]

1. The first press of the auroflight button should arm the AT. Pressing it again in the air will engage the AP. Are you pressing the button or using the Z key?2.Unlike the Airbus, PROF and FMS SPEED work without NAV. In that situation, I arm PROF on the ground and use heading select.Paul

[MrSpeaker 122]

1. The first press of the auroflight button should arm the AT. Pressing it again in the air will engage the AP. Are you pressing the button or using the Z key?2.Unlike the Airbus, PROF and FMS SPEED work without NAV. In that situation, I arm PROF on the ground and use heading select.Paul

No Im pressing the button not Z. So i can Arm PROF on the ground use the heading Selector for Vectoring and when I'm ready to have it follow my flightplan I can just press the NAV button after setting up the fmc to track a direct heading to my first waypoint. Ian

[Check_Airman 3]

CorrectWith respect to the autopilot shutting off, are you pressing the single button marked AUTOFLIGHT, or one of the 2 switches marked AFS (which exposes a yellow bar)?Paul

[tcas_climb 45]

Ian, i bet you are trying to engage the autopilot at 400' Above Sea Level...autopilot will not engage below 400' above GROUND level,

[MrSpeaker 122]

Ian, i bet you are trying to engage the autopilot at 400' Above Sea Level...autopilot will not engage below 400' above GROUND level,

Yep I think that was the case, I did another practice run and it worked fine, thanks for all your help guys.