King Air -- Can't Engage AP (Likely Me)

[Agrajag 286]

I'm interested in trying out the King Air. What a beast. It's so hard just to keep the speeds down and the RPMs in check.

However, during a flight from Tampa to Palm Beach (beautiful sunrise) I couldn't look outside for more than a few seconds as I had to fly manually with continual drift due to not being able to engage the AP. I'd hit the button, get a yellow caution light and then it would instantly disengage. What am I missing?

Thanks!

[Taver 57]

Look up. I think there is an switch on the overhead panel to enable AP. 

[Agrajag 286]

Just now, Taver said:

Look up. I think there is an switch on the overhead panel to enable AP. 

I never did look up during this entire flight. Odd that the one right in front is there, but wouldn't work.

[Agrajag 286]

13 hours ago, Taver said:

Look up. I think there is an switch on the overhead panel to enable AP. 

Well, I'm there now and above is mainly all lighting. The AP switch clearly seems to be the one on the dash, but it just fails to engage. You can press it, but for some reason I'm getting a yellow caution light. We need videos, it seems, for each of these planes.

[norman_99 209]

After engaging the autopilot (switch on the glareshield) look on your primary PFD, in the center, above the attitude indicator is your autopilot/flight director mode indicator. If it says AP, it's on. The yellow caution is most likely a Yaw Damper Off caution. Look on the central MFD, right hand side under CAS. All warnings and cautions are displayed here.

Edited August 22, 2020 by norman_99

[Agrajag 286]

5 minutes ago, norman_99 said:

After engaging the autopilot (switch on the glareshield) look on your primary PFD, in the center, above the attitude indicator is your autopilot/flight director mode indicator. If it says AP, it's on. The yellow caution is most likely a Yaw Damper Off caution. Look on the central MFD, right hand side under CAS. All warnings and cautions are displayed here.

Thanks. The one problem with this is that there is no time to do anything once it's engaged as it instantly ticks back off. I'll see what the caution is on the MFD and report back.... 

[norman_99 209]

Strange. I get the caution, but the autopilot never disconnects. Double check the PFD for "AP" after engaging the autopilot. This is the primary indication that it is engaged, not the light on the glare shield. I just ignore the caution for a few seconds whilst fine tuning the autopilot settings, then engage the yaw damper when I'm ready. The caution then extinguishes.

[Agrajag 286]

Okay, this flight -- which was a treacherous one from Courchevel to Innsbruck where I spent half the flight weaving through valleys surrounded by ominous mountains and wicked thermal shifts (awesome) -- I didn't have a problem with the AP. It took me quite a bit to figure out how to fly the course I set up and finally realized I needed to set the PFD to FMS mode. That did it.

How do you guys keep the ITT and torque under control? That was a constant battle. Overall, however, this may be the plane I spend the most time with until a Dash or CRJ/ERJ shows up. I did get the Caution light this time, but only for a moment telling me that the Yaw Damper was off. I honestly have no clue how that works but will look into it. I spent 95% of my time flying my Dash-8 in FS 95 through FSX and then XP9 through 11. Learning new planes is a bit of a challenge.

Edited August 22, 2020 by Agrajag

[marc1184 42]

You have to enable the Autopilot/Yaw Damper before you can engage it.  There is a gray block-switch right below the AP button. Ensure that's engaged, then you can select AP on, YD on, and the desired AP function.

[marc1184 42]

20 minutes ago, Agrajag said:

How do you guys keep the ITT and torque under control? 

I don't believe Torque and ITT are modeled correctly, so I'd just focus on torque.  As you climb, the torque will begin to rise, so you want to constantly monitor your throttle and pull it back every 1,000 ft or so.

[westman 257]

I get this to work with MSFS 350i , made it for the Milviz 350 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/exl56cuiw87yzwk/20200822_090828.jpg?dl=0

[qqwertz 771]

5 hours ago, westman said:

I get this to work with MSFS 350i , made it for the Milviz 350 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/exl56cuiw87yzwk/20200822_090828.jpg?dl=0

Cool. I am (very early) in the process of building a home cockpit for the Milviz KA350i myself. Would you be willing to share some details on how you created this?

Peetr