Autopilot: wild oscillations

[michaelth 76]

I have the PC-12 since 2017 and know it quite well. Yesterday, I took it out for the first flight since upgrading from P3Dv4.3 to 4.4: no problem flying by hand, but as soon as autopilot was active it went mad with wild vertical and horizontal oscillations. As always, I trimmed to the desired climb rate and put it on course before I activated the autopilot. Any ideas?

Michael

 

Edited December 20, 2018 by michaelth

[michaelth 76]

It was due to old stored flights.

Michael

 

[michaelth 76]

Precisely, stored flights in cold & dark mode. It seems that the autopilot properly initializes only when the airplane is set to "Ready to Taxi" (Shift-8 menu). I have already opened a service ticket with Carenado.

Michael

[MaSi 6]

Hello Michael,

I have this problem with PC-12 and P3D 4.4.  Have you any answer from Carenado?

 

Mark

[Raller 86]

The Carenado sales strategy is: sell and forget.

The reason why the PC12 is one of the best Carenado airplanes is because of Bert and a few other talented enthusiasts how made this encreatable mods.

Don't expect an usefull answer from the Carenado support. The standard reply is: Thank you for your feedback, we are going to check it and include on a future version if a fix is needed as this is the first ticket we received with this issue.

So if you live long enough to wait for an update... 😕

Edited February 18, 2019 by Raller

[michaelth 76]

Indeed, no answer so far from Carenado,

Michael

 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,958]

I have a similar problem with v4.4. All plans are fresh and from PFPX.

On my first flight the navigation was fine with NAV mode enabled with GPS selected. After landing and parking I loaded the next plan.

The a/p could not hold the correct heading in either HDG or NAV modes. Before my third flight I exited and restarted P3D.

This time, just like the first, navigation was fine. Is there a known bug if you fly multiple legs without restarting P3D? I can’t think of any other reason.

[michaelth 76]

Ray,

before I start a new flight, I always re-start P3D. I have found that the autopilot works as expected with the following steps:

1. save a PC-12 flight in condition "Ready to Taxi" (set with the Shift-8 menu of the PC-12)

2. load this flight and again set "Ready to Taxi".

Setting the PC-12 to "Cold & Dark" causes the autopilot to get wild. I suppose that some internal settings are not updated entering the "Cold & Dark" state.

Michael

Edited May 6, 2019 by michaelth

[Ray Proudfoot 8,958]

@michaelth, thanks. Given it was the only time I started a second flight without restarting P3D I’m putting the problem down to that.

I always start from C&D so that isn’t the issue. Something clearly isn’t being reset correctly but it’s not a problem as I’m unlikely to begin a second flight immediately after a previous one.

[Gabe777 132]

Sorry to pull up an old post, but is this still an issue ?

Is it OK to start P3D and then start a fresh situation in cold and dark ?

I.E. the problem is only for turnaround flights ?

 

Thnx

[Ray Proudfoot 8,958]

@Gabe777, I'm back in the PC12 after a long layoff. Just started a second flight without reloading the aircraft or restarting P3D. The aircraft is holding the heading and altitude but the a/p lights aren't illuminated. Just another bug that will never be fixed I guess.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,958]

Ignore my earlier comment about the a/p. It was on but my ChasePlane views needed tweaking as I was sat a little too high and the glare shield was blocking the a/p LED.

[Gabe777 132]

Hi Ray.

You had a PC spec bump ? Nice !

Yup, I've basically given up on any expectations from Carenado.

Interestingly, I've very recently installed X plane on a new 970 Plus (required because of Ortho)..... brum brum !

....... Now,  if you don't know (?), they are ported by a company called ' Thranda '.... and without wishing to be contentious, Thranda do a very good "Wash and Brush Up" job to both Carenado and Justflight planes. They are SOoooo much better in XP11.

I now have a few duplicate addons in both P3D and XP,  so it is certainly no placebo ! Everything looks, runs and works better.

So from now on, JF and Carenado go straight to XP11 without 'Passing GO' !

(If I dare make a little joke - Thranda is like Bert P, on steroids !)

 

Edited October 13, 2019 by Gabe777

[Ray Proudfoot 8,958]

Hi Gabe,

Yes, 12 months ago and I'm very pleased with it. 👍

Is your middle name Darth by any chance? Trying to turn me to the dark side. 😁 I've long accepted XP is better for VFR flying and has better flight models but my excursions in the PC12 are infrequent. Usually I fly the PMDG737 and I only fly that because there's no Concorde 64-bit for P3D. I'm aware of the XP Concorde but it still requires a lot of work before it becomes a competitor to FSL.

I'm very grateful to Bert for all the modifications and improvements he's made. With FS20 on the horizon it's possible my attitude to VFR flying might change as it may for you. Interesting times. Enjoy the PC12 in XP.