Expert autopilot procedures

[johnsteichen]

My first read on the procedures for the expert autopilot mode left me hoping that it would be more understandable after flying it for a while. I lost track of the number of button pushes that appeared to be necessary to get the autopilot to follow along with a coupled or FD directed ILS or LPV approach.
I fear that the autopilot may be more capable than my aging brain. :-X

 

[Ken_Kopp]

John - What plane are you flying?

 

[johnsteichen]

Glastar

 

[hmanvel]

John, I'll be flying with it this week to get the hang of the button pushing. I "think" the instructions make it sound more complicated than it really is. HM

 

[Dynon]

It is definitely one of those things that's a bit harder to describe on paper than to actually fly.

 

[johnsteichen]

I flew my glastar today to get a sense of how much tuning of the new autopilot software needed. It flew nicely with the default settings. I did increase the roll sensitivity to 15. I was able to fly a full LPV approach with VNAV. I also did some of the flying using the flight director.easy to adapt to. Time will tel how it will integrate into my flying.

 

[hmanvel]

John, I flew yesterday too, just a preliminary trial, then back to the ops manual last night. I didn't understand the fact that you have to tell it (via hdg or crs) to intercept the HSI needle, then it captures. Actually I like this feature as it wont do anything to surprise you unless you tell it to. Flying the command bars was interesting, with the Defiant being so pitch sensitive. The bars are really responsive, so I'll have to learn to fly with a softer touch!