First off I want to say that this is a fantastic aircraft and I am one of those guys that reads allot but for the life of me I cannot figure out what is going on when I first engage the autopilot and in the case where it is a vector departure and I set and pull the heading bug the airplane and flight director command the opposite direction. No matter how many times I set and pull the knob the airplane and command bars roll in the opposite direction. Now this only has happened 2 time so far, and then after a few minutes with a disconnected autopilot it will work fine. Is this a runway heading issue? I have no disco so it is not drawing the teal colored line representing runway track.Makes me feel I am flying a Scarebus, no just kidding.

MarkNot sure that I completely understand the issue but maybe this will solve your problem. Read the top of page 27 of the Tutorial Flight 2, KORD to KJFK. Maybe this will help.Michael Cubine

If I have understood the problem correct the aircraft turn left when it should turn right, that is because the MD11 doesn't simply turn to the heading but if you turn you heading knob left 350 degrees from start the aircraft will make almost a full turn. You can see that by looking at the dotted line on the navigation unit. To avoid this problem first push the heading knob to have you current heading. Then turn left for a left turn and right for a right turn to you new desired heading and finally pull the knob to get the heading you want.

Set the heading after you roll onto the runway before you finish the takeoff checks.

With the heading knob you can only turn 179 degrees to your desired heading. When on down wind just do it in 2 times. Like mentioned before, you can see it on the MFD.

The heading knob on the MD11 sets the desired heading, and also the desired direction of turn. Look at the dashed line on the ND connecting the selected heading marker to the Heading display, it indicates how to get from the current to the desired heading. You can read up on it in the systems manual, section INST.30.8

So you mean it does not turn the shortest distance like all the others do? Ok that makes sense than. When I look at the ND I see a standard depiction of a white dashed line representing the selected heading but no indication of a selectable direction of turn to turn to that heading. I will reread the applicable sections but it sound like I might have it worked out.

That is right, it turns in the selected direction. Just to correct JOR, you can dial in a turn of over 360 if you want, but after 300 and something degrees it goes back to shortest turn direction.

Assuming the turn is 180 degrees and there is no shortest turn direction is the MD-11 going to turn left or right?Michael Cubine

Assuming the turn is 180 degrees and there is no shortest turn direction is the MD-11 going to turn left or right?

It is turning in the direction you rotated the heading selector.Markus

If I remember correctly, the easiest fix for a vectored departure is a push on the knob when established on the runway heading when lining up with the runway, and then a pull in the air to command heading mode. I think someone else mentioned that, or similar, earlier.Push selects current heading. Pull assigns it. It avoids the rotation issues until you have all of that sorted in your head (yes, it is different from most other autopilots that will take the shortest turn to the selected heading).

It is turning in the direction you rotated the heading selector.Markus

MarkusIt was just a theoretical question. I guess the MD-11 would go which ever way you wanted it to turn. A couple of times when I first started to fly MD-11 I got caught out by that feature especially when making turns on missed approaches.Michael