Hi, does anyone know if there is a way to 'bind' the autopilot Pitch control to either keyboard or joystick, for the Captain Sim 707? The mouse hotspots are so small and 'fiddly' that it's quite tricky to hit the right spot and get a reaction! Often it will just clip the left or right directional movement and kick-out thte heading hold too!I use the Saitek X52 controller and still have a free 4-way hat which would be perfect, but unless I'm just being thick here, I can't find a setting from the FS9 control assignments menus to use!Thanks... :)

...Bump...And,Is the autopilot on this bird really so 'picky' about when it works? When I get the autopilot pitch controller to work, it gives problems when trying to descend. I can get the plane to descend from high altitude to around 4000ft without too much problem; however, when ATC instructs me to descend to around 2000ft, the thing seems to refuse to nose down, unless I lose too much speed, which then causes a stall and a rapid plummet to the ground! (I do have the altitude alert set to to the new level, and the altitude hold set to 'off')I must confess that with this 'older' type of equipment it takes a bit of getting used to; should I be disabling the autopilot entirely at this point and just manually continue the descent, and then re-engage to get the ILS/Glideslope capture?Any hints would be appreciated! Cheers....

Hi, I'm pretty familiar with this jet and can tell you this thing is better handled when "hand flown" from below 10,000 ft. I'm not sure where the lack of speed that causes the stall comes from as there is not autothrottle. My suggestion to you would be to keep your speed at around 200 in the pattern (Radar or visual) and on approach keep your speed at 250 knots. When your ready to configure for landing extend 14 degrees of flaps and lower the gear just after. As far as the altitude alert, I think you understand already that it has no secondary function and is not tied to any of the aircraft's systems. I do know what you are talking about when you say the autopilot is "picky" as I don't feel that it's modelled correctly. I find that the best way to employ this system is to engage the autopilot and flip the altitude hold switch after leveling off manually, then you should use the pitch controls for climb or descent. The Auto Approach, actually I've found that this works quite well when configured correctly, simply level off manually, engage altitude hold at the altitude that ATC has signed for the final approach, have heading hold engaged in the same manner and turn the nav selector knob to auto g/s. To answer your original question, I don't think that you can bind the autopilot controls to the 707's autopilot so I guess you are consigned to the mouse for now.Jeff

Thanks for your reply :) It is pretty much as I'd guessed but I'm glad to have it verified from 'someone in the know'!Thanks again!