In some planes there is an altitude hold button. When I select it nothing happens. I was wondering in these planes, is there anyway to add an altitude auto pilot without changing panels?Very hard for me to maintain altitudes without an autopilot.Thank you

Ensure that the AP or autopilot button is also pressed for the Alt Hld portion of the AP keeps you at the altitude you so desire.

May I suggest spending some time in the "Learning Center" which is built into FS2004.Use of the Autopilot functions is but one of the many topics which are explained in that resource.It takes time to learn (and remember) all of the basics and the LC is a great resource which is often overlooked.BTW - Hitting your Z key will toggle the autopilot on and off on aircraft which have an autopilot.It is also possible to access the Learning Center without starting up FS2004.To do that, create a new shortcut on your Desktop and paste the following line into the "target" box:C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\FSweb\frameset_ingame_help.htmThat assumes you installed FS2004 in the default location on an XP Operating System -- if the path is different, you will need to edit edit it accordingly.Give the shortcut any name you wish - such as Shortcut to FS2004 Learning Center - hit Ok and you are done.Now, using the shortcut, you can access the LC anytime you wish and even check out the "Lessons" prior to starting up the sim.Hope that info is useful.

Keep the elevator / horizontal stabiliser in trim at all times and you will find it much easier to hold height even without the autopilot.Colin B

All excellent responses and thank you. I guess what Im trying to say, is some of the add-on planes that I have altitude hold buttons and selectors. When you select them nothing happens. The planes dont move to the selected altitude, i.e. 737-200. What I'm asking is, is there any way to add this function to a panel through the config file?Thank you

All excellent responses and thank you. I guess what Im trying to say, is some of the add-on planes that I have altitude hold buttons and selectors. When you select them nothing happens. The planes dont move to the selected altitude, i.e. 737-200. What I'm asking is, is there any way to add this function to a panel through the config file?Thank you

Did you check the [autopilot] section of the aircraft.cfg file for one of the misbehaving aircraft in question to see if the following is present?[autopilot]autopilot_available=1Also it would be very helpful if you could provide the complete filename (and where you downloaded it from) of one of the aircraft which is giving you problems.One of us can then check it out and see if we can duplicate the Autopilot issue and perhaps spot the problem.

I beleive altitude hold will hold the current altitude the aircraft is at and not the one in the altitude selector in the MCP. To get to the altitude that is shown in the MCP, basically you have to use V/S climb, so you must set a vertical speed for the aircraft to climb at. There are other ways to activate the altitude on the autopilot, but this is the most basic way.

To the OP:Autopilots have changed a lot over the years. If you are using the TinMouse 737-200 (guessing here because you have not told us), there is no Altitude Acquire function. As has been stated already, it is up to you to get the aircraft to your desired altitude, and then select altitude hold. You can do this through pitch hold function on the autopilot.Peter

Actually, it's the Aerosoft version, and yes the autopilot works exactly the way you all described it. It's just that I was looking for the lazy way out.Thank you all.