Is it just me or are the autopilots worthless in these planes?  I have tried all of the prop models, not one of them will follow a NAV command and the ALT is hit or miss as well.  I just purchased this after 20 years of FSX and Prepar3D.  This is not acceptable.  Is it a known bug, something that will be addressed?  I guess I'll fire up P3Dv4 for now.

 

I just came back from a flight on the Cessna Longitude using Nav and Alt.

10 minutes ago, tommygavin2 said:

Is it just me or are the autopilots worthless in these planes?  I have tried all of the prop models, not one of them will follow a NAV command and the ALT is hit or miss as well.  I just purchased this after 20 years of FSX and Prepar3D.  This is not acceptable.  Is it a known bug, something that will be addressed?  I guess I'll fire up P3Dv4 for now.

 

Works fine for me in the King Air. I've used it on a dozen flights so far. NAV mode, ALT holds, APPR, etc.

Nav and Alt works fine with me on all prop aircraft so far.  Haven't tried the tubeliners.  So yeah, it's probably just you.  

Just recorded a short flight with the TBM 930 for my next video and I used the autopilot to control ALT, VS, HD. These functions worked fine.

I've been slowly plying my way westward from Virginia through WV, Ohio, Indiana, Chicago, up to Oshkosh WI, over to Madeline Island on Lake Superior (highly recommended), over to Brainerd MN, through the flatlands to Fargo, onto the surprising oasis of Bismark ND, down to Rapid City SD (ICAO code KRAP, funnily enough), buzzed Mt Rushmore, westward into Wyoming and through the breathtaking badlands to Yellowstone (KWYS) flying only the slowest aircraft in all the Premie Deluxe package (only allowing myself to fly only one new aircraft per day), half of which have autopilots, so that's now several hours of using Autopilot with NAV and ALT hold as well as FLC mode to expedite altitude change requests from ATC.  The rest of the legs were entirely hand-flown when using the little birds with no AP (man was I happy to finally get into the C172 today after 2 weeks of this!).   

That being said the AP in the G1000 does take some getting used to and this video helped me out a lot:

Here are the Cliff Notes I kept handy for reference while I learned to use it - basically, use these features in order once under way (except for the CDI button which you should set on the ground before takeoff):

CDI button
- Sets Course Display Indicator to show route, set to proper source (GPS, VOR etc)
 
AP button to hold course and pitch
- Display shows LVL, AP, PT
    (wings LeVeL, AP armed, hold PITch)

FD Button (flight director)
- Pink attitude indicator shows on display what AP is trying to do.

NOSE UP / NOSE DOWN 
- Adjusts pitch angle up/down

NAV button 
- Sets AP to follow course on CDI
- Display shows GPS if CDI set to GPS, etc

ALT Button
- Will automatically level the aeroplane
- Display will show ALT and target altitude
- Set target altitude BEFORE pressing ALT

ALT Knob to set desired altitude

VS button (vertical speed)
- Altitude tape shows 0 as Vert speed
- Display shows VS 0FPM ALTS
- use NOSE UP/DOWN to set vert speed to climb to target alt

FLC - FLight Level Change
- Automaticaly will hold current airspeed
- Display shows FLC and current speed
- use NOSE UP / DOWN to set airspeed - NOSE DOWN will reduce airspeed and make aeroplane climb
- (ex: NOSE UP/DOWN to set target FLC speed to best climb speed)

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by Stoopy

Autopilot on the TBM 930 works just fine, with the exception of vnav. 

The only autopilot functionality that doesn’t work for me is VNAV. No other issues so far.

Everything but VNAV works for me in the TBM

Looks like operator error Tommy!  Have a read up and watch a few youtube videos that show you how.  I must admit I had similar problems until I watched how it was done.

I real world flying the AP failure in small GA plane doesn't make it not flyable 😉

Otherwise most of thenlm would be not flyable at all. 

9 hours ago, tommygavin2 said:

Is it just me or are the autopilots worthless in these planes?  I have tried all of the prop models, not one of them will follow a NAV command and the ALT is hit or miss as well.  I just purchased this after 20 years of FSX and Prepar3D.  This is not acceptable.  Is it a known bug, something that will be addressed?  I guess I'll fire up P3Dv4 for now.

Maybe check out this autopilot tutorial video. There's a few intricacies with ALT & NAV modes that might lead to strange behaviour, the reason of which is maybe not immediately obvious.

 

Since when does the absence of an autopilot make an aircraft "unflyable"?   Shades of "children of the magenta"!

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by lzamm

None of the aircraft are 'unflyable'.  

There are issues which require some lateral thought to achieve what you need to (given the flaws)n  but you can still make it a great experience.  

Normally AP works for me, but yesterday it went nuts for some reason. When I engaged it, it tried to go full vertical like a rocket. This wasn't a trim issue either, as the "follow me" arrow was like straight up for whatever reason... Perhaps it was operator error, but I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything different than the dozens of other times I've used AP successfully.