Hanging On...

[jfitler]

Cruising yesterday in the Cessna Caravan on autopilot at 7000' over northern Ontario. Encountered moderate window icing in clouds, so I flipped the deice system from airframe to windshield. The moment I flipped the switch, it was pitch up, snap-roll right and down we go. The classic MSFS autopilot bug. It was especially discouraging since (for me) the Caravan has been the least amount of trouble, in terms of "bugginess".

 

So today, I attempted to continue my flight from CYSK to CYQB in the Caravan. Again at 7000, fair weather. This time, about 30 minutes into the flight, I requested flight following and was acknowledging my squawk code setting (hitting "1" on keyboard since clicking on the ATC box works only half the time, but that's another problem). As soon as I pressed "1", guess what... pitch up, snap-roll right and down we go. And the aircraft would no longer follow heading settings input into the autopilot from that point.

 

I've been exposed to enough software package releases to know that it's going to be a while before all the bugs get ironed out, especially with a package this complex. I'm just praying that it doesn't get into a cycle where each concurrent patch/hotfix/service pack, whatever - doesn't break more things than it repairs.

 

Trying to hang on and stay positive. I know this sim has an awesome future ahead. I just hope I'm there to see it!