Hey guys, I've had the J41 for a week now and it has for the most part been a pleasure to fly once I got used to all the procedures. Tonight though I had a problem and I dont know if its because of an incompatibilty with ASE or it was just a bad load with the a/c. Here's what happend. Started ASE and let it load, then started the Coldanddark.exe, then FSX. Once I ad my plane at the airport I pressed Tab-Q and got my cold and dark a/c. I did the usually procedures, programmed the route, started engines, taxi to the runway. Once I was airborne and climbing, I retracted the gear and flaps and then I hit the NAV button and VS button then the AltSel button, then engaged the autopilot. The autopilot began to track my course and I was climbing. I had, prior to take off set the Alt to 9000' and was around 3000' and climbing and everything seemed to be working fine. As soon as I got near 8900' and then to 9000' the plane just continued to climb. I switched off the Altsel button and adjusted the VS down -500' to try to recapture 9000' because by now I was up to 9800'. Once I got back to 9000' I engaged the ALT button to just hold that altitude. It held for a few minutes then began a fast climb again. I hit the VS button to -500' but the plane just wanted to climb. I turned off the autopilot and had to hand fly it back to altitude of 9000', re-engaged the AP with NAV button on and ALT button on to hold. After a few minutes the plane began to climb and when I hit the VS button on noticed on the PFD it was set to +400'. I backed it back to 0. To make a long story short I had to just disengage the AP and hand fly the plane the rest of the way as the VS wouldn't hold 0 FPM or the Alt button wouldn't hold.For the last week of owning the plane I have had a few slight issues with the altitude capture either climbing or descending where the plane will just cruise right thru the Alt that I have set. I always start with hitting the VS button, setting the descent rate and then hitting the AltSel button. 75% of the time it works and the rest of the time it just ignores the altitude I have set.Am I doing something wrong in the way I am operating the AP? Also my climb or descent rates are not usually more than 1500' to 2000' FPM in either direction. Also in regards to this I was wondering if there maybe an incompatibility with using ASE - Active Sky Evolution at the same time? I doubt it, but thought I would ask.Thanks in advance for any help I get get to solve this. Aside from that I love the plane, but the AP when use to climb or descend has got me going mad.Regards,Sean Campbell

Sean,I haven't seen that behavior before. If the VS/IAS thumbwheel is moving itself, perhaps you have an FSX key assignment or FSUIPC assignment error?Procedurally speaking, the proper way to initiate an altitude change is to "set it, arm it, do it". First, bug the new altitude. Second, press ALTSEL on the FD panel. Finally, select IAS or VS and rotate the thumbwheel to the desired value. Doing it this way ensures that you'll never vacate an altitude without having first armed the FD to capture the new altitude. Doing it any other way lends itself to the possibility of busting an altitude.EDIT: When you noticed that the VS was "set" to 400fpm, bear in mind that if you press VS (or IAS), the present value will be the commanded value. So if the airplane started climbing and you subsequently selected VS mode, it will engage at and maintain the VS that existed at mode engagement.

Thanks Nick.I think I figured out what was going wrong.First before hitting the "Fly Now" button, I would load the fuel. Then once the flight had loaded and I pressed Tab-Q the fuel that I had loaded wold go back to what ever the setting the Coldanddark.exe set it to. I didn't notice that before so it was screwing up my weight since if I loaded 1800 LBS the pressed Tab-Q 2354 LBS would load, but I was still using the weight of 1800 in the FMC. Plus I just realised that when programming the FMC I was adding the weight for AFT, POD, Closet and not including the Full wt. number which is a lot of weight not accounted for. So, what I think was happening was all the weights were incorrectly loaded and that is why I was having the issues with the climbs and descents. Glad I got if figured out before it drove me crazy. I figured it was operator error, otherwise a lot of other people would probably be posting about it as well.BTW, I am re-flying the same flight again at it is sold this time and everything is working as it should.Regards,Sean