I have had fs2k2 for a month now and am still bewildered by the same old mistakes and omissions in the program that mcrosoft have been making since fs 5.1 for instance there are still and never have been any outer,mid or inner markers for any airport in the u.k including Heathrow but then there never was and yes i have got the marker light switched on in the radio stack.And can anybody tell me why ac are darn well allmost impossible to land without the air file being amended.....use_no_default_bank use_no_default_pitch Many thanks to project opensky for inserting these two lines in there splendid ac.

FS2002 is a product from the U.S.A. which could be a reason for lack of certain details elsewhere. Could all depend on available data bases, I suppose without having to insert all the info by hand. BTW--- nothing personal against the U.K....... I love that part of the world!!As to the defaults, I think I've landed just about everyone, if not all with no problem. Can't give a real answer there, either.L.Adamson

It is unlikeley that there will ever be a "perfect" simulation since it kind of kills the next version. If you think that we are hard done by in the UK then have a look at China (I am sure that there are more airstips there than show in FS2002).I thought that the "USE_NO_DEFAULT_BANK" & "USE_NO_DEFAULT_PITCH" affected the autopilot and not the aircraft handing ?? Why would you want to control bank & pitch with the autopilot on ?? Please correct me if I am wrong .......

>amended.....use_no_default_bank use_no_default_pitch >Many thanks to project opensky for inserting these two lines >in there splendid ac. It is almost comical. Microsoft finally did the autopilot right (these 2 lines actually remove realism) and now you complain about it. Alan, how about doing a bit of homework before posting anything ?Michael J.

I'd say there's a fair number of folks who grew used to the status quo, and had no wish for MS to change things. Not everyone is a "real as it gets" fanatic...they just want to be able to jump into the cockpit and have something which generally simulates flying. They don't want to have to learn "new tricks" simply because some pilot or armchair pilot says it should be one way or another. Personally, I think Alan's making too big a fuss... If MS offers a "fix", then there's no issue. FS2002 has been out long enough, that 99 percent of issues we've heard of have been fixed by kind souls (including meself). There's also a third party program that will apply the "no_default" tweaks to all installed A/C.But in general, I think rather than taking jabs at people who complain over this issue, perhaps we should question why "real" pilots never posted the reverse situation as an issue in FS2000/FS98. I don't recall seeing any post, in any of these forums, saying "FS's autopilot should really enable the wing_leveler when heading hold isn't selected."Kind of funny how all the "real" pilots are suddenly saying how misguided others have been... :)

>perhaps we should question why >"real" pilots never posted the reverse situation as an issue >in FS2000/FS98. I don't recall seeing any post, in any of >these forums, saying "FS's autopilot should really enable >the wing_leveler when heading hold isn't selected." I wonder about it myself. But I never owned FS2000 and did not participate in this forum. I only heard that MS finally listened to some beta testers and decided to fix it. No doubt there must have been some voices about it before but MS simply did not care.Michael J.

Thanks for your advice mike, I am assuming you are one of those clever dicks that can when on finals in say a 747,work a.t.c,control your speed and descent,and make perfect landings,or do you sit back and let the autopilot land the ac say after autoflying the route.I like to land the ac semi manually,just using the speed control on the autopilot.This cant be done unless the two use_no_default lines are added to the ac file.

Well Alan, I actually do fly 90% of my approaches fully manually - at least starting from below 5,000 ft AGL. But this has nothing to do with the operation autopilot. People can modify the functionality of their APs however they want it - this is just a simulator-game (and they can make airplanes behave like baloons too !) but they ought to understand this is not how these devices work or are used on real aircraft.Michael J.

John, i wonder about some of these real pilots who post in here...For instance i was chatting to a real 747-300 pilot today at egcc and he told me that the ac can be banked left or right with the autopilot still engaged but you have to dissengage the heading section.It seems to me the way it was explained that the autopilot is not an all on, or all off system as some of the so called real pilots who post in here would have us believe.

Yes, you can bank. But servo motors will "fight" you so considerable force is required to overcome the resistance. This stuff can't be modeled too well in something like FS2002. But it is recognized as very poor airmanship to handle plane manually with AP engaged. Many airlines explicitly forbid it. Ask your friend pilot about it and he will tell you ... Michael J.

Well i am sorry Mike but i live near and work at egcc,and the information i am being given is at odds with what you are telling me,I am not arguing for arguements sake...but have just been informed again that it is not considdered bad practice for pilots to bank an ac with the rest of the autopilot switched on.Maybe you fly some old outdated crate that needs to be flown the way you suggest.

I suspect the pilot was talking about "Control Wheel Steering" a feature found mostly on older aircraft like the 737, that allows the flight crew to make small adjustment to the aircraft's flight path while the autopilot remains engaged. Control Wheel Steering is an option that may be selected by a particular airline; but in general you cannot disengage one part of the autopilot function.

I have never flown the 747 since I have no inclination to be an airline pilot - but I did have a "play" in the 737 - which I am sure allowed the autothrottle to be on - but the autopilot off....

In fact from what I understand, newer a/p indeed have to be all or nothing, older ones do use CWS, many GA a/p in fact are single axis allowing heading hold only or altitude or attitude control only.