AviatorJoe
New Member
About 8 minutes into warming my Rotax, the autopilot came on and then disconnected several times, announcing "Autopilot......Autopilot Disconnect" each time. Then it stopped. I flew for an hour with no issues. It didn't happen on the warmup for the return flight at all.
The very next day, I got the same thing during warmup, but it just happened once and that's it.
I took off and the "REL TO ENG" (release to engage autopilot) came on about 400 feet AGL. No annunciation, though.
I requested a return to field and landed with no issues. During the 10 minutes in the air it was on about three minutes, then went off for 30 seconds, then came back on for 8 seconds. A few seconds after I landed it came on again and stayed on until I turned shut down the plane. Whenever the "REL TO ENG" notice was on the AP status indicated "TRK HOLD and ALT HOLD."
At no time did the servos actually engage, thankfully.
During the taxi, I shut off the Avionics switch and rebooted the Dynon. When it came back up The autopilot pitch and roll status areas on the top left were crossed out and I had an AP DISCONNECT STUCK caution message. So, Dynon had figured out that something was wrong.
I went to the autopilot page and, indeed, TRK+ALT and HSI+ALT were disabled. 180 and LEVEL appeared to be still available, but pushing LEVEL did nothing. Obviously, I WAS level, but there were no indications on the AP pitch and roll status areas. They were still crossed out.
Obviously there's an issue with the wiring on one of my AP Disconnect switches (One on the panel and one on the stick).
This is a question for one of the Dynon folks: Once the AP DISCONNECT STUCK caution message is on, does it have to be reset in software after the problem is fixed or does it continually test? I will need to fly the plane to my dealer and if it's constantly testing, I'll pull my Autopilot servo fuses, just in case.
Thanks!
The very next day, I got the same thing during warmup, but it just happened once and that's it.
I took off and the "REL TO ENG" (release to engage autopilot) came on about 400 feet AGL. No annunciation, though.
I requested a return to field and landed with no issues. During the 10 minutes in the air it was on about three minutes, then went off for 30 seconds, then came back on for 8 seconds. A few seconds after I landed it came on again and stayed on until I turned shut down the plane. Whenever the "REL TO ENG" notice was on the AP status indicated "TRK HOLD and ALT HOLD."
At no time did the servos actually engage, thankfully.
During the taxi, I shut off the Avionics switch and rebooted the Dynon. When it came back up The autopilot pitch and roll status areas on the top left were crossed out and I had an AP DISCONNECT STUCK caution message. So, Dynon had figured out that something was wrong.
I went to the autopilot page and, indeed, TRK+ALT and HSI+ALT were disabled. 180 and LEVEL appeared to be still available, but pushing LEVEL did nothing. Obviously, I WAS level, but there were no indications on the AP pitch and roll status areas. They were still crossed out.
Obviously there's an issue with the wiring on one of my AP Disconnect switches (One on the panel and one on the stick).
This is a question for one of the Dynon folks: Once the AP DISCONNECT STUCK caution message is on, does it have to be reset in software after the problem is fixed or does it continually test? I will need to fly the plane to my dealer and if it's constantly testing, I'll pull my Autopilot servo fuses, just in case.
Thanks!
