Greetings All!,

 

So i decided to do a re-familiarization flight in the J-41 as its been a while.  So I go through the tutorial and all is well until I get to takeoff and it says engage the autopilot.  After much frustration I know the issue, its my joystick...

 

I have the X52, a great stick!  Ok, I have the trim wheel set to the axis wheel on the "e" button (owners will know what i mean) the large wheel on the throttle.  Now, I moved it to here instead of the two lighted buttons on the stick for greater control.  It works FANTASTIC on hand flown GA aircraft, it allows me to make fine adjustments and hold an altitude easily!

 

The PROBLEM is I think, because the trim is now assigned to a wheel its a manual control now, not a push button adjustment.  So my theory is the J-41 can't automatically move that wheel in real life (that would be awesome lol) so it interprets the fact that the wheel isn't moving as pilot input, and disengages itself.

 

Per the AOM for the J41:

 

section G 8.11  Autopilot cut-out

 

The autopilot will disengage if any of the following conditions exist:

 

...

 

-Manual over-ride by the pilot beyond a point at which a servo clutch becomes disengaged.

 

 

That's what I'm assuming, because the physical wheel is a analog control, the plane thinks I'm moving it (even though I'm not) and it cuts out.

 

This seems to be confirmed by unmapping the trim controls, and then the ap engages just fine...

 

So, my question, is there a way I can leave the trim mapped to that wheel and still get the autopilot to work in the J-41?  Or am I looking at changing my control mapping every time I wish to switch from the J-41 to another aircraft?

 

Thanks

You would have to change your control mapping for trim. There may be a workaround using FS UIPC.

Inigo,

 

You are correct in your understanding.  It would see that wheel as a constant Trim input which is an Autopilot inhibit.  

 

I would recommend mapping two buttons on the X-52 for Nose Up Trim and Nose Down Trim instead and removing that wheel input as a trim input.  You should be able to save that as different profile in the Saitek profile manager and use that when you fly large aircraft that don't use a trim wheel. Just load that specific profile and you should be all set.