Nuisance "Bank Angle" Warning after Software Upgrade

[Aggie78]

Anyone else having this?

Upgraded to the latest software version yesterday and flew today....the flight involved assertive autopilot off maneuvers (generally non-aerobatic) as part of formation flying (rejoins, etc.) 60-70 degrees of bank, pitch +/- 15 degrees.

Any bank angle over about 30 degrees resulted in an audio warning ("Bank Angle") that wasn't there before the upgrade.

I've looked in the manuals and see the verbiage about bank angle warnings with the autopilot on....this wasn't that situation. Autopilot was definitely off...

Thanks,

Rob S.

 

[swatson999]

Was it *off*, or only disengaged?

 

[Aggie78]

Was it *off*, or only disengaged?

Great question, in fact...

I don't know if I single or double-tapped the A/P disco once I had eyeballs on my formation buddies and was cleared to rejoin...

So, the assumption you're going on is....if I had single-tapped it and the command bars were still visible (acting as a Flight Director only, not an autopilot) the thing is lurking in the background yelping at me when she see something she doesn't like?

If so, THAT's a possible change with the new upgrade too...'cause it never used to do that, IMO.

Thanks for chimin' in ...

Rob

 

[RV8JD]

Looks like a new alert with v16.3, as of May 2022.

"Bank Angle - The autopilot is engaged, and the bank angle of the aircraft is greater or equal to set Bank Angle Limit plus 5 degrees. The alert is cleared when the autopilot is disconnected, or the bank angle is less than the set Bank Angle Limit. The audio alert repeats every 5 seconds until cleared."

Next time, try pressing the AP disconnect button twice within one second, to turn off the FD and the alerts that go with it.

 

[Aggie78]

I just looked at the data dump on Savvy Analysis and can confirm...it showed the A/P on almost the entirety of the sortie! Obviously, it was not while flying #6 of an 8 ship flyby!

It looks like as long as the command bars are in view, the A/P is "on" and you get all the noise that goes with it...

RV8JD, I concur...double-tapping appears the way to go....but I will report next time I go flying. Dunno if I like this latest change or not...usually, I like a quiet cockpit. Have seen too many warnings and caution alerts cause task saturation issues when I was still in air transport...

RS
RV-7
N75WV

 

[RV8JD]

Yup.

From the User Guide:

"Disengaging the Autopilot
When engaged:

• Press the autopilot disconnect switch once to disengage the servos while leaving the flight director active with all active and armed modes unchanged. Press the autopilot disconnect again within 1 second to turn the flight director off (regardless whether the autopilot was engaged).
  
  
• Press the AP button to disengage the servos while leaving the flight director active with all active and armed modes unchanged. Flight director guidance continues.
  o Using the AP button to disconnect is useful for times when you want to will want to re-engage the autopilot with the same modes that you had used previously.
  
  
• Press the FD button when the servos are disengaged to turn off the flight director and remove all active and armed modes and indications. This effectively “resets” the autopilot.
  
  
• Pressing the button for any active mode (except an external LEVEL button or SV-AP- PANEL LEVEL button) turns off that mode and any armed mode for the axis, turns off the flight director and disengages the servo for the axis.
  
  
• Pressing the button for any armed mode disarms that mode."

 

[Aggie78]

So here's what the data dump revealed with "Roll" and "AP Engaged" being sampled...while the fact that it's been lurking in the background while the servos are disengaged may not be new, the fact that one gets voice callouts as if they are is something not seen before...(as RV8JD pointed out in Post #4.)

I guess they are including them now in the "active" or "armed" category mentioned in the text...which prior to this meant "ALT HOLD" or "HDG" or "GPSS", etc.

Not sure if I'm a fan of this yet or not, although I will admit Boeing does it this way though through the GPWS, Flight Control and Caution/Warning systems. In fact, bank greater than about 35 degrees and you encounter increasing resistance/rollout force.

Thanks again to all for responding.

Rob