Hopefully someone can put me out of my miser and tell me what the heck I'm doing wrong. I create flight plan(s) using simbrief and import it into the MCDU. I set NAV and Vnav etc and off I go. Everything goes well for a time then suddenly the aircraft has a mind of its own, doesn't follow the route and goes completely off course. It's driving me mad. I've had a look at some of the youtube tutorials and I can't see what I'm doing wrong. I don't fly the large airliners but I do love the ATR but I'm getting fed up. I've been hoping to get through a full AP approach and landing but I can't get 10 minutes into a flight before everything goes pearshaped

First off, let's get you into the correct forum for asking questions!  The Tips & Tricks Forum ain't 
the right place.  Now you are in the correct forum.

VNAV isn’t a climb mode in the ATR.  
 

Probably need a lot more info to tackle anything else. 

Indeed that's the first thing. You climb in SPD mode in the ATR not in VNAV.

 

But that doesn't explain you going off course. Are you sure you have set the aircraft to follow the FMC and not raw data?

 

I suggest you watch this series:

 

Edited July 6, 2025Jul 6 by Farlis

5 hours ago, pks1414 said:

Everything goes well for a time then suddenly the aircraft has a mind of its own, doesn't follow the route and goes completely off course.

First thought that comes to mind is a flight plan disconguety.  (SP)

-B

21 minutes ago, btacon said:

First thought that comes to mind is a flight plan disconguety.  (SP)

-B

Easy to leave a discontinuity in that box but it's also extremely easy to have the wrong nav source selected on the PFD too. Maybe it was "more or less" going the right direction in HDG SEL.

Well I followed various videos and then tried a fairly simple flight from Inverness to Leeds Bradford. Once again I used Simbrief to give me the route and then imported into the EFB on Board and the MS2024 EFB. That was then set in the MCDU and I looked through all of the waypoints. I made sure it was all the same in Navigraph. Made sure that the were no Discontinuity entries. Set Altitude and NAV and off I went. The first waypoint is GUSSI, this shows as purple on the MCDU, I get past that but before I get to the next one which is NESDI the plane goes completely of course and goes into crash dive.

I'm obviously doing something wrong, what I don't know

 

It's something with me and the ATR. I've just done at least two thirds of the route, using the above but in the Cessna Skywagon that comes with MSFS2024, not a hitch followed everything perfectly

 

Edited July 8, 2025Jul 8 by pks1414
Tried something else

Two ideas:

• Can you post some screenshots? That could help work out what's going on.
• When the airplane starts going into a nosedive, does the autopilot disconnect? This could indicate that you've got an unwanted control axis that is bound to the flight controls (elevator, aileron or rudder). 

 

Is your AP still connected when it goes off course? Sometimes with your joystick If there is erratic feedback it  can disconnect the AP. Check it's behaviour in your windows control panel.

 

I'm wondering if this is a 2024 thing. I fly that plane quite often in 2020 and have never had something like this happen. Is the ATR and add-on for 2024 like it is for 2020, or does it come with the sim? If it's an add-on, you can try uninstalling and reinstalling it. If you'd like to know the specific steps I take for setting up the plane and taking off, just say so.

 

Could you paste the Simbrief route here? I'll see if I can replicate it.

I've been trying to paste/attach images but I can't see how. That would be a good start 😄

1 hour ago, pks1414 said:

I've been trying to paste/attach images but I can't see how. That would be a good start 😄

What about sharing the Simbrief flight plan? I've never done it myself, but I think it's possible.

I'll try Inverness to Leeds Bradford. I was born in Leeds - and Yeadon (as it was called then) was where my early fascination with aviation started (!).

As to images - you need to upload them to an online image hoster. I use the free https://postimages.org/

Once uploaded there, you paste the link here. There's a way of embedding images in posts, but I'll wait to see how you get on to start with 😉

UPDATE: Here's my Simbrief flight plan:
EGPE/23 N0275F160 DCT GUSSI DCT NESDI N560 GOW L612 CALDA DCT POL DCT EGNM/32
https://www.simbrief.com/ofp/flightplans/EGPEEGNM_PDF_1752057126.pdf

I'll try and fly it tomorrow ...

Edited July 9, 2025Jul 9 by Adamski_NZ

That looks reasonable. In any case, though, if the plane is nosediving as you say, that's not something that should be caused by a bad or invalid flight plan - it's more likely to be something related to the autopilot or the flight controls.

• Can you post screenshots in flight, both before and after the problem occurs?
• Does the autopilot disconnect when the plane goes into a nosedive?
• Can you recover the plane manually at this point or are the flight controls ineffective?