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Autopilot and ILS approach question.


aerovan

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With the autopilot on and auto throttle engaged I have noticed the speed tape drops to zero, so I have no idea what my speed is. I have tried resetting it to no avail.

Also when on an ILS approach sometimes my altitude automatically reduces on the approach, but mostly I have to control it manually !

Any help appreciated !

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What plane are you using?

 

Do you have a speed set other than 0 in the autopilot? As well as an altitude? Just have to clear that bit up.

 

When I get to 500 feet above ground I disconnect the autopilot and manually fly. Unless it's a very low visibility.

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Make sure your Pitot Tube heat is on. It gets cold up at cruise altitude. If your altitude drops on your ILS approach, you are either going too slow with your flaps and gear set for landing or you have picked up the glide slope.

Still thinking about a new flightsim only computer!  ✈️

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply...

 

It seems like something that happens to me now and then as well, and I think it's some "bug" in the weather engine.

It's like when the weather is created, sometimes a small region gets no air pressure data but I've never seen it at cruise alt.

 

My VA's ACARS even registered it during a climb.

https://www.deltava.org/thread.do?id=0x1e3a2

 

One time I changed the airspeed display in options from IAS to TAS and the airspeed problem was gone. Anti-ice/pitot heat on or off makes no difference, I've tested this with stock C208.

 

Regards,

DDP.

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With the autopilot on and auto throttle engaged I have noticed the speed tape drops to zero, so I have no idea what my speed is. I have tried resetting it to no avail.

Also when on an ILS approach sometimes my altitude automatically reduces on the approach, but mostly I have to control it manually !

Any help appreciated !

 

I'm with Mr. Zippy on the pitot heat causing the lack of airspeed. Most airliners, iirc, and I may well be wrong, have turning the pitot heat on as part of the pre-takeoff checklist. With good reason.

The sim doesn't do "icing" worth a darn without some help, over all, but the pitot tube is definately prone to icing up pretty easily. Thus, no airspeed indications.

 

As to the decreasing altitude on an ILS approach, well, isn't it supposed to? Or are you worried that sometimes it doesn't?

If the ILS has a localizer, but no glideslope, the plane doesn't have any electronic signal to guide it down. It's all on you to properly control your descent then. Like the flaps settings, landing gear, speed settings, and so on.

If the ILS has a glideslope, but you're above it when you activate the APProach setup on the AP, it'll never "capture", so no descent. You have to make sure you're below the glideslope, and let it come down to you. You must activate the AP's approach mode before the glideslope passes below you, or it will never "capture". That's before the glideslope bar on your HSI, or PFD, passes below the center point.

 

A side note here, also: Don't forget that when you deactivate the AP to manually control the last of the approach, you must ALSO deactivate the auto-throttle. It doesn't deactivate with the AP. If you don't, you're liable to wind up parked at the nearest Denny's, rather than at a gate on the airport...

 

Enjoy!

Pat☺

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Had a thought...then there was the smell of something burning, and sparks, and then a big fire, and then the lights went out! I guess I better not do that again!

Sgt, USMC, 10 years proud service, Inactive reserve now :D

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I apologize for my terminological imprecision, and I thank you for your correction.

Pat☺

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Had a thought...then there was the smell of something burning, and sparks, and then a big fire, and then the lights went out! I guess I better not do that again!

Sgt, USMC, 10 years proud service, Inactive reserve now :D

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Even with pitot heat on in FS9 it is still possible for it to ice up and go to zero IAS. You can increase the effectiveness of the pitot tube heater in the aircraft.cfg file. In the [pitot_static] section there should be an entry for pitot_heat=. It usually has a value of 1, change that to 3 or 4 and you should have no more pitot tube icing. From the SDK description of pitot_heat=: "Scale of heat effectiveness, or 0 if not available."

- bernie

p.s. no need to call me Capt folks, Capt Flappers is just a name my wife teases me with because of my flight sim obsession. :o

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- bernie

p.s. no need to call me Capt folks, Capt Flappers is just a name my wife teases me with because of my flight sim obsession.

 

Bernie - Your wife is much too gentle, I am sure mine has much worse names for my obsession!

 

Rick

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Even with pitot heat on in FS9 it is still possible for it to ice up and go to zero IAS. You can increase the effectiveness of the pitot tube heater in the aircraft.cfg file. In the [pitot_static] section there should be an entry for pitot_heat=. It usually has a value of 1, change that to 3 or 4 and you should have no more pitot tube icing. From the SDK description of pitot_heat=: "Scale of heat effectiveness, or 0 if not available."

 

Thanks for that tip, Bernie. I'll give that a try.

 

Regards,

DDP.

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