Arctic Autopilot Question

[Swanoir]

Hello all

Always on the lookout for something different to try in FS so I've decided to have a crack at flying from Alaska to the North Pole (or thereabouts) in a Ford Trimotor (as used by Mr Byrd in his 1926 expedition).

I've installed the excellent Glacier Bay Freeware scenery to make the first part of the trip more realistic, and downloaded a few 'proper' textures for the a/c.

Being of a lazy persuasion, the idea of going all that way in wind and snow without an autopilot is putting me off slightly. So I had a crack at tinkering with the panel config to get the Cessna 208 radio stack to show up in the Ford. Now, this usually is way beyond my comfort zone so I was well impressed when it actually worked...

However, when I say worked...When the AP is activated and the ALT button is pressed, we reach the correct alt with no problems. The heading also appears to lock, but after a few seconds we enter a very slow right hand turn. This effectively makes the AP useless for any flight further than from my house to ASDA, making the North Pole seem more than a little ambitious (and Tesco completely out of the question).

I'm truly out of my depth now, so, anyone got any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. Sorry for the long post, but it has been a bit quiet around here lately, thought I'd fill up a bit of space.....stay tuned for my shopping list!

[RAF_Quantum]

Hi,

Take a look at this post which may give you an insight as to your problems.

Regards

John

[austerdriver]

I think I had an AP in the Ford Tri motor sometime back. Plus by the sound of it you need to set the heading to that on the GPS. Plus you need to copy the C208 autopilot from the c208 aircraft.cfg to the ford tri motor aircraft.cfg for it to work properly.

[Swanoir]

Thanks for the tips lads, I'll have another tinker tonight and see where that gets me.

[austerdriver]

Just had a thought, you may need to change the compass to something that allows you to select your heading of choice.

[JimCooper]

Out of curiosity, I've tried implementing an Autopilot for the Ford 3Motor and it will not accept a Heading hold, Height hold is OK. Must be something in the FDE that's preventing it.
If someone can get it to work I'd be very interested in how you did it

[Swanoir]

Well, thanks for the suggestions all. I've been mucking around with this for the last few days but nothing's quite worked. So I've given up and replaced all my tweaks with the Calclassic Trimotor update and left it at that. Never mind, from these things we learn!

[AllanL]

You could always switch to one of Jens' Fokker triplanes, they work fine with autopilots. The Ford was allegedly inspired by the Fokker design - but obviously improved it like those US built Spitfires.

Apart from the fact that fs9 does strange things if you try to overfly the true pole, you should have fun with the magnetic compass. It might even take you overhead Jeremy Clarkson. Be sure to take the opportunity to drop something heavy on the self-important motormouth.

Thinking about it, having such a cretin denying climate change can only be for the good.

[Swanoir]

Actually, that's a great idea. Thanks Allan!
When I see Clarkson I'll pass on your message!

[Swanoir]

Downloaded Jens' Fokker Trimotor last night and took her for a quick spin around Juneau, even landed and took off from a glacier! Perfect for the job, especially as it has an autopilot.
Turns out I'd got my 'research' wrong anyway, it wasn't a Ford that took Byrd on his 1926 North Pole jaunt but none other than the very same Fokker I'm using anyway!
So, Friday night I'm loading up and heading North from Juneau and see where I get...