How do I use the Garmin autopilot for headinj only.

I must be doing something wrong, whenever I use the Garmin Autopilot it takes control of altitude and heading. I want to keep control of altitude manually. I can't believe that the real life Garmin won't do that.

How do I get it to do heading mode only?

Select heading mode (press the Heading button), adjust the heading knob to whatever heading you want then select autopilot. Works for me every time. If you don't want altitude hold make sure that function is set to off.

Note, hovering over the button will tell you what you are about to select, not what is already selected which sounds to me like what is happening.

Select heading mode (press the Heading button), adjust the heading knob to whatever heading you want then select autopilot. Works for me every time. If you don't want altitude hold make sure that function is set to off.

Note, hovering over the button will tell you what you are about to select, not what is already selected which sounds to me like what is happening.

That's not the way it works on my 172.

If I follow this sequence:

1. FD on

2. HDG button (which sets HDG mode).

3. HDG knob (select desired heading)

4. AP

It sets AP on and the AP takes control of pitch; I can deflect the elevators to make the plane temporarily pitch up or down but as soon as I let go, the plane resumes its originally set pitch, which seems to be whatever was the flight path at the time of the first time it was set on. If I continue to fight the AP pitch, AP disconnects. While the AP is controlling pitch, elevator trim disturbs flight trim when moved, but has no lasting affect.

Hovering over a button does nothing for me, are you using MSFS2020?

Select heading mode (press the Heading button), adjust the heading knob to whatever heading you want then select autopilot. Works for me every time. If you don't want altitude hold make sure that function is set to off.

Note, hovering over the button will tell you what you are about to select, not what is already selected which sounds to me like what is happening.

Uhh, “works for you every time”, on which plane? Can you try it again and let us know how that goes for you when you want to change altitude?

Have just done a flight in the Bonanza - same Garmin 1000 - heading bug worked fine for me. I used the FLC mode to change altitude rather than switch off altitude hold and manually try to climb/descend. I think I see what you mean, the autopilot is trying to maintain the attitude (not altitude) it already is set on. Sorry, don't know if that's how it's supposed to work or not.

Been a couple of weeks since I flew the C172-G1000 but it's exactly the same unit as in the Bonanza and I operate it the same.

Have just done a flight in the Bonanza - same Garmin 1000 - heading bug worked fine for me. I used the FLC mode to change altitude rather than switch off altitude hold and manually try to climb/descend. I think I see what you mean, the autopilot is trying to maintain the attitude (not altitude) it already is set on. Sorry, don't know if that's how it's supposed to work or not.

 

Been a couple of weeks since I flew the C172-G1000 but it's exactly the same unit as in the Bonanza and I operate it the same.

Now it makes sense that the system is trying to maintain attitude; the way I saw it, it was doing a never ending climb without an altitude bug set. It's the same thing, but your way of stating it makes better sense.

In a real plane, the need (or desire) to have an AP controlling only the heading may not be so important because the AP console is always right there in front of the pilot, while for a sim pilot flying in external view it is a real pain to switch screens and operate the necessary buttons and then return to heads up looking out again every time you want to climb over a ridge or descend into a valley.

It would be helpful if the sim allowed the FLC and VS buttons to be assigned to external switches, this would eliminate the need to go back and forth between cockpit and external views. Maybe Asobo will do that some day in the future.

I find flying in external view to be more realistic than flying from the cockpit. In a real plane (most real planes) the pilot has excellent visibility outside and inside the plane; with the sim, using a monitor, the field of view is severely restricted. Not good.

When prices come down, I'll probably get a VR headset which will alleviate some of the problem; also one of these days (or years) Asobo will provide a way to put the instrument panel on a separate screen, that would make things a lot easier too.

Now it makes sense that the system is trying to maintain attitude; the way I saw it, it was doing a never ending climb without an altitude bug set. It's the same thing, but your way of stating it makes better sense.

 

In a real plane, the need (or desire) to have an AP controlling only the heading may not be so important because the AP console is always right there in front of the pilot, while for a sim pilot flying in external view it is a real pain to switch screens and operate the necessary buttons and then return to heads up looking out again every time you want to climb over a ridge or descend into a valley.

 

It would be helpful if the sim allowed the FLC and VS buttons to be assigned to external switches, this would eliminate the need to go back and forth between cockpit and external views. Maybe Asobo will do that some day in the future.

 

I find flying in external view to be more realistic than flying from the cockpit. In a real plane (most real planes) the pilot has excellent visibility outside and inside the plane; with the sim, using a monitor, the field of view is severely restricted. Not good.

 

When prices come down, I'll probably get a VR headset which will alleviate some of the problem; also one of these days (or years) Asobo will provide a way to put the instrument panel on a separate screen, that would make things a lot easier too.

Regarding assigning the VS buttons to external switches you can do that. I fly with the Thrustmaster 16000M and I used the 6 buttons on the right of the base to handle turning VS and ALT HOLD on and incrementing VS UP/DOWN and ALT UP/DOWN. It’s great!

Regarding assigning the VS buttons to external switches you can do that. I fly with the Thrustmaster 16000M and I used the 6 buttons on the right of the base to handle turning VS and ALT HOLD on and incrementing VS UP/DOWN and ALT UP/DOWN. It’s great!

WoW, you're right. I looked for those but somehow missed them. Now I can have a whole new way of flying, but I will need nimble fingers. Temporarily I assigned them to the Xbox X, Y, A, B switches.

On my Thrustmaster 16000M I use the rightmost four for altitude and heading bugs, on the left side I have flaps and landing gear. The four buttons on either side in the middle are used for Ground tow, parking brake release, map and pause release. I use the top rear for pause.

And I just realized that the top left and right are currently unassigned. Now I have to re-arrange things a bit to use those two quite valuable switches.

Make a note of the original bindings before you change anything, then another note of what you've changed them to!

I lost track of a few changes I made and had to reset defaults and start over again!