Autopilot fix or mod for next version?

[Paraffin]

Hi, and Happy Holidays to the X-Pilot, X-Aviation, and LES crew!

 

Since it looks like we're on hold for an update until v.1.2 final, have you had a chance to take another look at the heading drift in the Sperry autopilot? Here's the previous post about it:

 

http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php/topic/3225-chasing-the-autopilot/

 

If this drift is historically accurate (and I'm still not sure about that), then maybe there could be a setting the user could adjust somewhere for a conventional heading hold? It makes flights of an hour or two very labor-intensive. You can't leave the pilot's seat long enough for a cup of coffee, without coming back and being seriously off-course. That's a problem for the longer assignments in FsEconomy, among other things.

 

Even if it's accurate, I think there's a justification for allowing a steady heading hold on autopilot, as the DC-3 was never flown without a co-pilot. With a co-pilot, you would trade off managing heading drift in a way that can't be done as a solo flight sim pilot. 

 

[Cameron]

We'll consider this though I don't make promises. To be honest, this has never been truly complained about save from yourself. I don't mean that rudely, it's just not perceived as a prioritized big issue.

[Paraffin]

Well, the world is larger than X-Pilot forums. 

 

Here's a quote from the FsEconomy forum about available DC-3 models in the X-Plane sub-forum:

 

the x-aviation one is amazing, as are all of their aircraft. My only complaint is that it has a really basic autopilot, so you really can't step away from your computer for more than a few minutes while on a flight

 

Here's the full thread if you can see it (not sure what the guest status is over there):

http://www.fseforums.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=81339&posts=6&start=1

 

If you're just zooming around the scenery and sightseeing for 20 minutes at a time, it's not a big deal. Virtual airlines like FSE where you have to complete long flights (i.e. what this ship is designed for), is where the problem really shows up. 

 

[Cameron]

Well, the world is larger than X-Pilot forums. 

 

I'm fully aware of this, and see A LOT more e-mails coming in than even posts here. It's quite easy to detect big problems and prioritize.

 

Sorry to say, your link does not work unless I register there. 

[Goran_M]

Michael

I have considered a few options and one that I think will be best for everyone is a Wing Level button on the Main Panel.  Very easy to make and should be an acceptable solution to make everyone happy.

I'll be honest and say I'm not really a fan of adding something that isn't in the real thing, but it seems it would alleviate some frustration.

It will make it into the upcoming update along with the anti ice.  

No auto rich/auto lean yet, though.  That's a little bigger and will come later.

 

[Paraffin]

Goran, thanks for the info. If the wing leveler will hold a heading, then that should work.

 

Here's what I'm still curious about though, and I understand a reluctance for "adding something that isn't in the real thing," The Wiki page about the history of autopilots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot) says the following, about the development of the Sperry system:

 

"Elmer Sperry Jr., the son of Lawrence Sperry, and Capt Shiras continued work after the war on the auto-pilot developed by Elmer Sperry's father, and in 1930 test a more compact and reliable auto-pilot which kept a US Army Air Corps aircraft on a true heading and altitude for three hours, that was probably of the type used by Wiley Post to fly alone around the world in less than eight days in 1933."

 

A hands-off heading hold for three hours is not what the current LES DC-3 autopilot is doing, and that demonstration was back in 1930!

 

On a strictly mechanical level, if the gyrocompass isn't drifting, and the AP is slaved to the gyro, then why would the AP have drift? I guess I'm still not convinced that this is an accurate model of the Sperry AP, based on the info I've been able to dig up. I'm happy to stand corrected, if this is really how it worked. I just wonder how Sperry could have sold this system in the first place, if it couldn't hold a heading for more than a minute or two.

 

 

 

[JGregory]

Goran, thanks for the info. If the wing leveler will hold a heading, then that should work.

 

Here's what I'm still curious about though, and I understand a reluctance for "adding something that isn't in the real thing," The Wiki page about the history of autopilots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot) says the following, about the development of the Sperry system:

 

 

 

A hands-off heading hold for three hours is not what the current LES DC-3 autopilot is doing, and that demonstration was back in 1930!

 

On a strictly mechanical level, if the gyrocompass isn't drifting, and the AP is slaved to the gyro, then why would the AP have drift? I guess I'm still not convinced that this is an accurate model of the Sperry AP, based on the info I've been able to dig up. I'm happy to stand corrected, if this is really how it worked. I just wonder how Sperry could have sold this system in the first place, if it couldn't hold a heading for more than a minute or two.

0.01 degrees of separation.... funny how that works, eh?

[iandiss]

Hi Goran,

 

A wing leveller button would spoil the panel and is really unnecessary.

 

I have assigned "W" to Auto pilot wing leveller, "H" to autopilot heading hold and "A" to autopilot altitude hold. This is easily done via the keyboard menu in joystick settings in x-plane. Thanks for the DC-3

 

Dissy

[Goran_M]

Many thanks for that "fix" Dissy!

It definitely seems reasonable as I would hate to add something to the panel that is not there in the real thing.