I am looking for fsx aircraft that are IFR capable, but have minimal or no autopilot. I am looking for freeware specifically.

And I know the obviouse answer is "just fly any aircraft, but don't use A/P", but that is not the solution I seek.

 

Thanks for your helpful suggestions.

 

Mike

Choose any default FSX aircraft, look in the aircraft.cfg file for the [autopilot] section. In it there's a setting for "autopilot_available= 1". If you set this to zero, it will probably render your autopilot inop. If that doesn't work, then commenting out the entire [autopilot] section by putting // in front of each line will probably do the trick.

 

The usual disclaimers apply: BE SURE to back up your aircraft.cfg file before making any changes.

 

Hook

"just fly any aircraft, but don't use A/P"

That's what I initially thought, before I started reading your question, and to be honest, I don't understand why this is not your preferred solution. Could you please explain. Not that that might be of any help, I'm just curious :rolleyes: .

On topic: I'm not aware of any, and as stated above, I wouldn't know any use for an IFR capable plane that is not equipped with an AP. The only plane I'm aware of that has no autopilot at all is the J3, and, well, flying IFR in that plane only means "I follow roads". And there's the DC3. Its AP has mainly the feature to keep a certain pitch, and maybe a heading hold (not sure about that one, though).

Otherwise: What Larry said should do the trick.

 

On a second thought: Do you count choppers as aircraft? Most of the available ones don't have any AP at all.

 

Regards,

Flo

 

Sorry for the contradiction, didn't realize it, before I posted.

Edited January 6, 201313 yr by OE-LAT

On topic: I'm not aware of any, and as stated above, I wouldn't know any use for an IFR capable plane that is not equipped with an AP.

 

We were surprised in the Microsoft Flight forum when many people didn't seem to understand that you could hand fly an ILS landing, for example.

 

If you don't mind spending just a little money, Microsoft Flight plus the rest of Hawaii (includes an RV6) plus the Maule M7 will give you two IFR capable planes, navaids, no autopilot, no GPS, and some interesting flight models and landing challenges. You can check out the basic package for free before making a spending decision. And yes, you can do serious flying in Flight.

 

Hook

While not freeware the Lotus L39 is IFR equipped (also RXP GNS430W support if you own that) and no autopilot. Amazing plane for IFR, it also has a canopy you can pull down for "under the hood" work.

I am looking for fsx aircraft that are IFR capable, but have minimal or no autopilot. I am looking for freeware specifically.

And I know the obviouse answer is "just fly any aircraft, but don't use A/P", but that is not the solution I seek.

 

Thanks for your helpful suggestions.

 

Mike

 

Would you settle for an IFR equipped aircraft that had a BIG ON/OFF switch for it's autopilot ??

 

There is nothing that says you HAVE to turn the autopilot ot GPS ON.

You can always FLY the plane manually, in both VFR and IMC conditions.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I will expand a little on my reasoning just so I don't sound completely daft...

 

I enjoy setting up challenges/missions that are do-able in FSX multiplayer environments. So if I were to set up a challenge in my favorite server, to test pilots on their ability to handle IMC with no autopilot, I would need an aircraft that is accessible to all (freeware or default), and that has no autopilot available what-so-ever. So the mission would be simply, fly from here to here, with this aircraft. You could only be reasonable certain that the pilot succeeded IF they made the flight in the prescribed aircraft without A/P.

 

I'm thinking perhaps another option would be to modify an aircraft.cfg file and make it available to the pilots, but this still does not solve the need to ensure everyone plays by the same rules...

This may be important if successful completion of the challenge is rewarded, or if it is set up as a competition.

 

Geoff, if that red button worked on the server side that would be pretty cool. Imagine having the ability to go back to the 90's and force selective availability on the GPS sattellites...or wipe them all out in a massive solar storm

Peggers .. opps .. didn't connect that the OP were you.

 

You want a RED Button on the FSMP server .. that is not as difficult as you might think.

( An "autopilot being used" detector ).

 

Few RL pilots, and even fewer Sim Pilots can hold altitude and heading as consistently accurately as an Autopilot, so the use of an autopilot should be quite easy to detect !! (even more true when watching pilots fly an ILS approach !!)

 

Even if you get an Aircraft that is not equipped with an Autopilot, there are addons that effectively ADD an autopilot function to your aircraft, without needing any modification to the actual aircraft. ie FS Commander.

 

Therefore, in the end, maybe the best way to stop autopilot usage in an Event, is to detect the flying characteristics of the plane that is using an autopilot.

Just took a more detailed look at the obvious external effect that one can see of a plane's flying characteristics, when on Autopilot.

 

One dead giveaway that a pilot is using the AP, is the constant small changes in Trim, that the AP is always doing.

 

That alone us a pretty good indication. If the trim does not stay fixed for periods of time, then either the pilot is either chasing trim ALL THE TIME !, or the AP is on.

 

Add in delta heading, delta pitch, delta bank, and delta altitude, and it would be very difficult for any pilot to control his plane as "tight" as the AP does.

Thanks for looking at those events Geoff. I wish I knew enough about the coding and programming to help make use of that data. It could be useful to see who let's Otto do all the work...

 

Few RL pilots, and even fewer Sim Pilots can hold altitude and heading as consistently accurately as an Autopilot, so the use of an autopilot should be quite easy to detect !! (even more true when watching pilots fly an ILS approach !!)

 

 

Mostly because the trim in FSX is plain bad... in real life it's fairly simple to properly trim a small aircraft. In FSX not so much.

A lot of Piglets freeware planes are IFR capable with no autopilot...his PC-7 comes to mind.

 

For payware, of the top of my head, the Alabeo Waco, CH BF-108, Sibwings Safir, Aerosoft OV-10 and PBY, Carenado Archer and 172, RealAir Scout package (remove AP in config window), RealAir Spitfire.

 

I created a reference collection of my GA types, certainly don't have everything but you can compare. Folks are welcome to contribute to the collection for reference.

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/396542-collection-of-ga-vcsthumbnail-heavy/