Yesterday I was doing the Gatwick-Amsterdam run with the q400 (same run as the PMDG NGX Tutorial 1). When I turned into the final sharp turn about 15 nm from Schiphol, the plane seemed not to  grab the glideslope (I turned control from FMS1 to NAV1 as I lined up with the runway at 2000 feet, isn't that correct?), so I turned off the autopilot to land by hand. However the plane began to pitch up and down and climb and turn and I could not gain control for about 10 minutes. The top of the MFD was indicating  items like "pitch hold"  and other stuff and nothing I could do would remove it (pressing the stby button on the autopilot removed the announcements, but did not help to gain control). My impression was that some parts of the autopilot were still on.

 

Should not turning off the autopilot just give the pilot back full control of the aircraft with the various settings just as they were when the autopilot was turned off (like in other aircraft)? It is very frustrating to do a one-hour flight and then have the plane go nuts in the last minute of flight...

 

Henri

The AP in the Q400 (in the sim at least) is turned off by praising the AP button on the MCP. When it's off it's off. As you rightly say, the STBY button will clear all the PFD annunciations. Why you are not getting control is a bit of a mystery. Did you follow Sandim's advice in the earlier thread?

I'm puzzled by this too- simply turning off the autopilot should not lead the flight director into basic modes (PITCH/ROLL HOLD/HDG HOLD etc)- it should stay guiding you on the LOC/GS. 

 

Do you remember where your trim was at the time of disconnect (did the autopilot leave you with an out of trim condition?)