Was in a successful cruise with lnav and vnav engaged in autopilot when I accidentally bumped the control yoke thereby disengaging the pilot side autopilot. Within seconds I tried to re-engage the autopilot but was unable to. I was forced to engage the Flight officer autopilot to resume cruise, however, this led to further problems during approach (unable to engage VOR LOC). Could not find a way to simply re-engage the autopilot when this happens or the conditions that led to this in the documentation.

 

 

 

Was in a successful cruise with lnav and vnav engaged in autopilot when I accidentally bumped the control yoke thereby disengaging the pilot side autopilot. Within seconds I tried to re-engage the autopilot but was unable to.

 

This is a correct behavior (and you would've known about it had you read the intro manual).  You broke a shear pin between the yoke and the autopilot, essentially.

 

 

 

I was forced to engage the Flight officer autopilot to resume cruise, however, this led to further problems during approach (unable to engage VOR LOC). Could not find a way to simply re-engage the autopilot when this happens or the conditions that led to this in the documentation.

 

Engaging on CMD B is the correct response.  As far as your inability to engage VOR/LOC, remember that CMD B pays attention to the FO-side information.  As such, you'd need to ensure that the FO-side information has the appropriate navaids dialed in (FO-info is populated in NAV 2 and COM 2).

Thanks Kyle, 

I did read that section of the intro manual, however, it states that the shear occurs when the controls are yanked really hard. Given that when I bumped the yoke I barely moved it at all I didn't consider this. Regardless it does the explain the situation. Thanks for the FO side info, I guess in my rush to get the plane stable again I forgot to do that.

 

 

I did read that section of the intro manual, however, it states that the shear occurs when the controls are yanked really hard. Given that when I bumped the yoke I barely moved it at all I didn't consider this.

 

Yeah.  Remember that there's a bit of a disconnect between how the sim actually interprets your flight control movement.  Whereas your yoke might only move a few inches in each direction, the full deflection of the yoke in the VC covers a lot more distance.  Additionally, unless you have a force-feedback yoke, the joystick doesn't really report on "force" as much as it does position.  If you bumped it and the yoke driver sent a large enough movement (regardless of its physical displacement), then it could've easily triggered the shear pin failure.

 

 

 

Thanks for the FO side info, I guess in my rush to get the plane stable again I forgot to do that.

 

You're welcome.  It happens.  It's a lot of plane to handle yourself, and if you're not used to non-normal situations, or working from the FO side, it's easy to forget.