It’ll be shown in your MFD with a teal marking on the compass and a numeric “HDG” indication of the same color. The HDG (Heading) button instructs the autopilot to hold a selected heading, which you can set with the HDG knob. Continue reading to understand what that means. For instance, in the screenshot above the autopilot is set to follow the GPS flight plan and to climb with a vertical speed of 500 feet per minute. Incidentally, you can see which autopilot modes are engaged at the top of the MFD. It’s a good compromise if you don’t want the plane to fly itself, but you still would like not to get lost. If your autopilot is off and your flight director is on, and you use the controls described below, a pink indicator on the MFD will give you a visual guide to follow if you want to fly the plane manually instead of having the autopilot do it for you. This won’t be enough to follow your route as the autopilot is simply armed and waiting for your instructions using the following controls.Īnother important control is the button labeled “FD” which turns on your Flight Director. That being said, you need to keep in mind that it won’t do anything else than keeping your aircraft in level flight. Your first control to learn is the “AP” button, which engages the autopilot. This is usually indicated just above the button.ĭo keep in mind that when you hover over a button with your mouse, it will tell you what it does, but it won’t explain anything else. When it is, you’re ready for GPS guidance. When you have a less advanced autopilot, you may see a button labeled “CDI” and you can use it to change the navigation mode from VLOC to GPS. If you see that the arrow in the middle of the compass is not magenta as in the picture above (it may be green when you boot up your systems) you need to activate the GPS mode by pressing the soft key under the CDI indication at the bottom of the left Multi-Function Display (from now on, we’ll call it simply MFD) until the arrow turns pink. One of the most commonly confusing elements is that many general aviation aircraft don’t boot up in GPS mode. With these aircraft, you’re on your own in controlling your altitude, climb, and descent manually.įirst of all, most autopilots in the game have a main GPS guidance that will follow your pre-created flight plan with great precision. A common example is the Altitude/vertical speed/flight level change features that aren’t available in less advanced aircraft. If one isn’t available, you’re expected to control that part of the flight yourself. Also, remember that not all autopilots have all the features described below. This guide will focus on general aviation aircraft as the autopilot in airliners is a bit more complex in some ways (and simpler in others), but once you mastered this model, you’ll be equipped with the basic knowledge and concepts required to understand the rest without too much effort. We’ll use it as a baseline reference for this guide.
Autopilot addon fsx simulator#
One of the most common and full-featured in Microsoft Flight Simulator is the Garmin model you see below. That being said, most basic principles remain the same. Using the Autopilot in Microsoft Flight Simulatorįirst of all, there are several different models of autopilot, with relevant differences in their features or where each control is located. Luckily, it’s not broken, it’s just a fairly complex system that Asobo and Microsoft did not think to make a tutorial for. Many newcomers to the genre have felt the frustration of pressing the “engage autopilot” button and seeing that absolutely nothing happens, wondering if they’re missing something or the bloody thing is just broken.
Autopilot addon fsx Pc#
Using the Autopilot in Microsoft Flight Simulator is more challenging than most expect both on PC and Xbox Series X|S.
0 kommentar(er)
