I flew the other day to hopefully finish my test procedure for version 6.0. I had previously gone to 24 on the pitch sensitivity, but was overshooting target airspeeds by 2-3 knots, in either direction speeding up or slowing down. So I started playing with Pitch gain. Maxed that out at 3, and still the airspeed overshoots, maybe now 1.5-2 knots. Its improved and settles down nicely after the overshoot, but it doesn't behave according to the instructions, i.e. slowly approach target airspeed and nail it. Aircraft is a Rutan Defiant canard. Should I just live with it? Any other suggestions? FYI I flew home after that with AP engaged and it behaved fine, not unusually twitchy or anything.
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Pitch Sensitivity and gain maxed out
- Thread starter hmanvel
- Start date
I'll reply to my own question with another question. The tuning instructions don't seem to mention Altitude gain, just pitch gain. Should I now play with Altitude gain? Or is that just going to mess up my setup. I probably should have left everything as it was because it was working well!
Hi Harry.
If the pitch sensitivity and pitch gain settings are working for you in IAS mode, you can fine tune the ALT gain in the next section of the tuning guide, in the Altitude Hold and Capture procudure. Try the procedure and see how it performs. You may find that your current settings work fine and that you don't need to change them.
As for maxing out the gains, if the amount of improvement in hitting your speeds got smaller as you increased pitch gain, you can probably back it off that that point. For example, if a pitch gain of 1 gave a 3 knot overshoot, and 1.5 gave a 2 knot overshoot, but 2 only get you 1.8, go back to 2. Too much gain can make things twitchy in bumps, so you don't want to use more than you have to - but if you need it, you need it.
The Defiant is a pretty cool airplane - we'd love to see an AP datalog. You can PM me or contact support attn: me for the details if you're interested.
If the pitch sensitivity and pitch gain settings are working for you in IAS mode, you can fine tune the ALT gain in the next section of the tuning guide, in the Altitude Hold and Capture procudure. Try the procedure and see how it performs. You may find that your current settings work fine and that you don't need to change them.
As for maxing out the gains, if the amount of improvement in hitting your speeds got smaller as you increased pitch gain, you can probably back it off that that point. For example, if a pitch gain of 1 gave a 3 knot overshoot, and 1.5 gave a 2 knot overshoot, but 2 only get you 1.8, go back to 2. Too much gain can make things twitchy in bumps, so you don't want to use more than you have to - but if you need it, you need it.
The Defiant is a pretty cool airplane - we'd love to see an AP datalog. You can PM me or contact support attn: me for the details if you're interested.