Has anyone ever been able to get the autopilot to track a heading?

 

The altitude hold on mine captures and tracks fine but I think I have a faulty roll servos on my birds. I select a heading and hit heading hold and it will turn in the right direction then keep turning... and turning... and turning. Until it rolls near vertical and then either stalls or tries to go the other way since it overshot the heading bug.

 

Love the plane other than that... but it's damn near unflyable in an IFR situation without at least the heading hold.

 

I even tried pasting in the autopilot section from the default lear and it didn't help

 

Any Ideas?

Works great for me.

 

What happens if you set the heading bug to your current heading (or close to it, within 30 degrees), then push the HDG button, then move the heading bug to your desired heading?

 

regards,

Joe

Works here too, no problems with heading hold... Can't wait till my school ends so I have more time to fly with this beautiful bird.

Anyone have trouble trimming it out for hand flying? I get it trimmed for a minute then it will diverge again. No problems with the default Lear. Haven't tried the autopilot yet.

I don't know ever experience this. As stated earlier have the "heading cursor" adjusted to your desired direction in the HSI and the "heading button" and "autopilot button" selected on your autopilot.

Yes this is a relatively ancient thread but I have the exact same problem, exact same symptoms, and this string of replies is as average as it is annoying. Why do people respond at all?

 

I'm glad it 'works for you'. This is a waste of text. We can safely assume it's not a universal problem, as that would be a product defect not a support issue. Thanks for your input.

 

How to use a heading bug? Yea, he probably has that figured out. Why doesn't he refer to the users manual for proper operation! This is a wordy variant of RTFM. Also a chiding little slap to the poster who, as is clear from his query, has some experience with FSX.

 

Then a question for a question, somebody's problems with trim. Why not start a new thread? Because it's easier to hijack this one, of course! And still no answers, troubleshooting or helpful suggestions. Zip.

 

Okay Brian, an actual attempt here: I found the problem was not the autopilot so much as the hypersensitive roll, which explains the symptoms you noted. The autopilot is hard set to a high-speed bank angle and simply can't keep up, chasing the heading bug until it gives up, winding the aircraft into a tight 360's. This happens in both HDG and NAV mode. Pitch does not have this sensitivity, so ALT mode is fine. The '23 was legendary for its twitchy roll, I don't know about later models; but in this simulation (at least for some of us) it doesn't work well. The solution is in the aircraft.cfg. Search for ROLL_STABILITY = 1.0 and change it to a higher number. I use 4.0. True, your civilian fighter jet now turns like a 767 at max gross, but it's perfectly maneuverable and the autopilot should work. HDG changes work as well as FSX default, NAV is a bit picky and needs to be within ten degrees or so to capture a radial, and will hunt for a while. Haven't tried a glideslope capture yet but that's a different axis, so I don't expect a problem.

 

By the way, the equally twitchy ground steering can be improved. In that same aircraft.cfg, search for

 

[contact_points]

point.0 = 1, 15.00, 0.00, -3.74, 1181.1, 0, 0.6349, 46.8, 0.100, 6.66, 0.92, 9.0, 9.0, 0, 260.0, 260.0

 

The 8th value of 46.8 is steering sensitivity, and most FSX aircraft (that steer worth a darn) have values in the 15-25 range. For the LearJet I use 20.0. Supposedly there's a compromise in turning radius, but I don't see it. Good luck. If you don't mind spending a bazillion virtual dollars in fuel costs, it's a great plane to fly!