Autopilot turns off course?

[cap10jaf 6]

Greetings,

 

I'm ready to give up.  I have searched everywhere and tried everthing I know.  Can some FS wizard out there diagnose this problem?

 

This is only happening with three planes.  Wilco 737, Wilco Regional Jets(ERJ-135 ECT), and Wilco Ejets (E-170 ect).  I have contacted Wilco support and they claim all issues are resolved.

 

When flying online (Vatsim), in LNAV mode the plane suddenly enters a full banking turn off course.  Sometimes I go a whole flight without this happening, but it's rare.

 

I was supecting real world wind shifts for awhile.  I'm using REX and yesterday I purchased a registered copy of FSUIPC after reading about the smooth weather function.  Tested it last night and after 20 minutes, hard banking turn to the right. 

 

I've tried coping the Autopilot features in the aircraft.cfg file (nav_proportional_control ect) from other planes.  Didn't help.

 

Another thing  that is curious, it seems to happen much more frequently when I'm not watching flight sim.  If I go to a website to download an approach plate, when I go back to the sim it's banking off course.  

 

This makes me think it's my crappy rig (which is old: Pent 4 3.2 ghz/Nvidia 1G GPU/ 4G RAM) but why does it only do this with WILCO.  Never with iFly, LSH, PMDG, Dreamfleat 727 which all work fine?

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Greg

[A32xx 129]

Hi Greg,

I have almost the same crappy rig as yours, running Windows 7 64-bit, with the Wilco RJ, EJ, and Airbus. Here's my two cents:

1) Either the Wilco's gauges or a VATSIM utility are trying to access some Windows system resource which is protected on your rig, then turning the plane back to the last waypoint when the resource is blocked. If you google "FS2004 UAC settings" and "FS2004 compatibility settings" you'll find plenty of step-by-step guides on how to set them up if you haven't done it already.

2) If you can fly the same (online) route offline without failure then it's one of the VATSIM utilities, which may be the FSX version instead of FS9, or may need updating to the latest version.

[Skywatcher 133]

If your description is what I think it may be, here is something to try:
When your plane banks hard, pause the sim. Then switch to windowed mode, make the window only half the size of your screen or thereabouts and unpause the sim. See if it all comes good after you do this. Let me know if this made things go back to normal.

[cap10jaf 6]

Hi Greg,

I have almost the same crappy rig as yours, running Windows 7 64-bit, with the Wilco RJ, EJ, and Airbus. Here's my two cents:

1) Either the Wilco's gauges or a VATSIM utility are trying to access some Windows system resource which is protected on your rig, then turning the plane back to the last waypoint when the resource is blocked. If you google "FS2004 UAC settings" and "FS2004 compatibility settings" you'll find plenty of step-by-step guides on how to set them up if you haven't done it already.

2) If you can fly the same (online) route offline without failure then it's one of the VATSIM utilities, which may be the FSX version instead of FS9, or may need updating to the latest version.

Alrighty then,

 

This sounds promising!  I'm glad I asked before giving up.  I'll do some research an see what I find, then report back with the test results.

 

Thank you very much,

 

Greg

If your description is what I think it may be, here is something to try:

When your plane banks hard, pause the sim. Then switch to windowed mode, make the window only half the size of your screen or thereabouts and unpause the sim. See if it all comes good after you do this. Let me know if this made things go back to normal.

Hi and thanks for the reply. 

 

The only problem with testing that is that I fly in windowed mode (better fps is what I was told).  Curious what you are wanting to test though.

 

Thank you,

 

Greg

[Skywatcher 133]

If you are already in windowed mode, still the same procedure. Pause the sim, no need to switch to windowed as you are already there but at least halve the size of the window and see what happens. Go even smaller if you can see what you are doing. Unpause and see if everything goes back to normal. Many variables but I've found certain aircraft on certain systems can exhibit this behavior, a large bank in one direction or the other. I've seen it on 3 occasions on 3 separate systems and with the procedure I'm mentioning fixing it. You are having what sounds like the same or similar issue, all with Wilco aircraft. You haven't explained exactly what is happening with the bank but from the situations I speak of the aircraft banks and is uncontrollable either with autopilot on or off. In all cases I've seen it's due to PC's working very hard to run the sim. Still sound like you? Your situation fits all 3 criteria and why I suggest it's worth a try. May be something else but when you fit so many criteria, it's a very simple thing to try and easily rule out if it doesn't work. A32xx's suggestions sound very good.

[A32xx 129]

Thanks Skywatcher,

I've never seen this behaviour myself so I'm glad that you have! Interesting that it could be system overload and possibly graphics-related. I've found that by converting all my aircraft textures (especially Wilco's) from 32-bit to DXT3 improves FPS significantly and this in turn reduces the processing load on the system, could be worth a try?

[Skywatcher 133]

A32xx,

My circumstance happens to me! My graphics card isn't great and it's the iFly 737 which does it to my system. It's PC overload most likely but I'm still not completely certain there isn't something else behind it. In my situation it happens when I fly through heavy weather, it pushes my fps and I notice eventually at some point they tend to become a little lower than I would expect. It's the first sign I am about to have a problem. What normally sends it over the top for me is when I finally get to a custom airport, about 200-300ft from the runway. It's at this point the airport details have fully loaded and suddenly out of nowhere I get a sharp bank I can't control. Took a while to figure out, looked at joystick and other things but then worked out system overload. By minimizing the screen size, you are taking the load off the PC. It works every time. I can now almost predict when it's liable to happen so if I see my fps is starting to become questionable I can switch straight out of full screen mode and things are fine again before the airport needs to load. If I chance it and stay in full screen and it happens it's just a matter of immediately pausing the sim and changing modes, control returns. Friend currently has the identical problem but with the PMDG 747. We both use the same solution.

[cap10jaf 6]

 

...Interesting that it could be system overload...

 

 

...It's PC overload most likely...

 

Thank you both for the info.  I'm fairly certain you've nailed it.  I checked my CPU usage while flying and 99% is the lowest number I see!   With FS9, FSACARS, FSINN, VATSPY and Firefox running this old system is tapping out.  My WILCO planes seem to be the only ones that turn back to the previous waypoint, but it seems that's exactly what is happening.

 

This old machine has been fun, and I have put countless hours into scenery and aircraft add-ons but I think I'm ready to upgrade.  Now I need to decide if it's worth building an FSX/P3D rig or just a better FS9 version.

 

Thanks again Gents,

 

Greg D.