Unable to reconnect A/T

[kryten 1]

I always fly with "Random Failures" enabled as I find it keeps me on my toes during long flights. Occasionally I get an "Autothrot Disc" message on the EICAS and the A/T disconnects. The QRH is not much help and I'm unable to reconnect it. I've tried :

1) Pressing VNAV once

2) Pressing VNAV twice

3) Pressing TOGA once

4) Pressing TOGA twice

5) Switching from VNAV to FL CH and back again

6) Switching A/T ARM off and on again

 

I'm still able to fly without A/T but it can be stressful at times and it would be useful to know how to reconnect the A/T. I must be missing something obvious. Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Phil

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

 

I must be missing something obvious.

 

OPTIONS menus >

What is your setting for your A/T Override?

[PHXMD-11 86]

 

 

"Autothrot Disc" message on the EICAS and the A/T disconnects.

 

"AUTOTHROT DISC" means that the autothrust system has malfunctioned. You need to control thrust manually or reset the failure in the PMDG Failures menu.

[kryten 1]

Thanks for your replies.

  Scandinavian 13 : I cannot see an A/T override in the options. There is an AFDS option that relates to moving the throttles when the autopilot is active. The "Throttle" option is selected but as this option seems to  relate to disconnection of the A/P I do not think it relates to my problem. My A/P does not disconnect. Only the A/T disconnects. I may be wrong.

 

PHXMD-11 : Do you mean click on the "Clear Active" button? According to the QRH if "Autothrot disc" appears and the A/T disconnects the crew action is to determine the cause and correct as desired.  There must be a way to "correct as desired" in real life. How would a pilot in a real aircraft respond? I would think that the PMDG version would react in the same way.

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

 

I cannot see an A/T override in the options. There is an AFDS option that relates to moving the throttles when the autopilot is active. The "Throttle" option is selected but as this option seems to  relate to disconnection of the A/P I do not think it relates to my problem. My A/P does not disconnect. Only the A/T disconnects. I may be wrong.

 

You're correct that you're wrong.  A/P and A/T are different systems.  Throttle overrides will never disconnect the A/P.  They just placed the option in the same spot as the A/P options for convenience.

 

The option is either a selection of "Override: Never/Always/Only in Clamp mode" (and you'd want to select Never), or something like "Allow hardware throttle to override [flight sim throttle]." (and you'd want to leave this unchecked.  I don't have it in front of me, though, so open up PMDG > Options... and just read what's there and interpret it appropriately.

 

 

 

Do you mean click on the "Clear Active" button?

 

Yes...

 

 

 

According to the QRH if "Autothrot disc" appears and the A/T disconnects the crew action is to determine the cause and correct as desired.  There must be a way to "correct as desired" in real life. How would a pilot in a real aircraft respond? I would think that the PMDG version would react in the same way.

 

AUTOTHROT DISC means the A/T has been disconnected, either by you, or due to some error.  If an error caused it, you'll have to troubleshoot the issue.  If you disconnected it yourself, you hit the A/T DISC button once more to clear the message (you will have to set a key command to do this).

 

So, your "correct as desired" would be to:

-Cancel the message (by hitting CANC on the EFIS panel, or hitting A/T DISC switch)

-Re-engage the A/T, if possible

-Manually adjust the throttle

 

It's either a failure, or your hardware throttle is interfering:

-Ensure the feature I mentioned is not set to allow your hardware to override the AP/AT (however it's written in the menu)

-Clear Active failures related to the throttle