Have had a number of test flights using the autopilot, a Century III, which is not altogether dissimilar to the STEC in the way it functions. Everything appears to work correctly for me apart from the LOC NORM mode which is meant to follow the localizer. For some reason, after positioning the aircraft accurately on the localizer centreline, as soon as I switch to the LOC NORM mode, the aircraft rolls to the left and does not follow the localizer. Although I assume the autopilot is working from NAV1, I tuned both NAV receivers to the same frequency just in case it was operating from NAV2. I have tested this at two airports with the same results each time and I am uncertain why this is happening and wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience. 

Hi Bill,

 

Using the auto pilot (Heading Mode) with a 15 degree intercept, I selected LOC Normal from LG Mode Selector. I used the wheel to decent about 500ft per minute. Auto pilot kept the plane on track.

Hi Bill,

 

Using the auto pilot (Heading Mode) with a 15 degree intercept, I selected LOC Normal from LG Mode Selector. I used the wheel to decent about 500ft per minute. Auto pilot kept the plane on track.

Hi! So am I correct in my understanding that I should leave the autopilot in heading mode while selecting LOC NORM from the mode selector? I was intercepting the localiser in heading mode and then switching out of heading mode before selecting LOC NORM! That may well explain why I was getting that odd behaviour - doh!

 

Many thanks for that,

Bill

Can't seem to climb in Autopilot.  Tried everything I know.  Love the plane and the dynamics.  Excellent.

 

Stan

Can't seem to climb in Autopilot.  Tried everything I know.  Love the plane and the dynamics.  Excellent.

 

Stan

Put the mouse cursor over the wheel and use your mouse wheel to pitch up or down. You should see a +1, +2 for climb rate, or -1 or -2 for decent rate.

Enjoy folks, not my kind of plane though.  I got burned so many times and not into mod anymore, so I pass and wait for RA Duke.

Shutting down an engine is one of the first things I check with multiengine aircraft to see how they modeled it. How much rudder is required to keep the aircraft flying straight (if any at all).

Can't seem to climb in Autopilot.  Tried everything I know.  Love the plane and the dynamics.  Excellent.

 

Stan

Thanks.  That worked. 

 

Stan

Using the auto pilot (Heading Mode) with a 15 degree intercept, I selected LOC Normal from LG Mode Selector. I used the wheel to decent about 500ft per minute. Auto pilot kept the plane on track.

 

Following your advice Jose, strangely enough my problem with LOC NORM persisted even after a redownload and reinstall. However when I installed the GTN-750 and tried a test flight the LOC NORM function performed perfectly. It seems like the autopilot was just not locking on to the ILS without using the GTN-750 for some reason even though I had both NAV radios tuned to the correct frequency. I remain curious as to what I was doing wrong!

 

Bill

There is a short review here, but it does not move much beyond the visual modelling unfortunately:

 

http://www.flightsimulatorpilot.com/fspmain/?p=18190

Hey guys I just checked the Carenado website (where I purchased this Aztec) and they do not have an upgade to the air file, aircraft cfg, or panel cfg.  I have some issues and wonder if any of you are getting these as well.

 

Lighting

 

1.  When switching on the landing lights, the nose wheel taxi light illuminates as well (no footprint however on the nose wheel) but there is a footprint on the landing lights.

2.  When turning on the taxi light, I get the footprint on the ground but the light itself does not illuminate.

3.  The interior lighting for the panel turns on the cabin lighting as well.  Once I am cleared to taxi, I prefer to turn off cabin lighting.  Shouldn't panel lights be separate from cabin?

4.  Clicking the instruments light does nothing.  I assumed this should highlight the instruments themselves...backlighting inside the glass perhaps?

 

ATC ID

 

1.  The aircraft.cfg by default shows the ATC_ID as PA23.  This will not work as ATC will refer to you as a Piper Apache.  I have changed mine to PA27 and now properly refers to my plane as an Aztec.

 

Views

 

1.  When hitting the Shift A key that normally takes you to the legacy 2d cockpit, my mouse starts to flicker between the pointer and the hourglass.  Forums mentioned this is an issue with resolution.  I confirmed this by bringing it down from 1920X1200 to 1920X1000.

 

That's if for now.  Let me know if this jives with you all.  More to come as I have only flown this for a week.  Sorry if I am being to picky but my "switchology" has to be spot on.

 

Ben