Q for Dave M

[Fors]

Hi Dave, hope you might be the right man to have som fresh ideas about the following problem:

I have made a panel for the Alphasim freeware Belfast, and took the liberty to use your AFCS Mk29 from the Trident, no problem the AP works perfectly fine in any aircraft. Except for the Belfast, where there is no way I can have the Autothrottle to work.
I have tried with my panel, incl. the AFCS 29 in other A/Cs and it works fine.
I have tried other, fully functioning, panels and Autopilots with Autothrottle in the Belfast and A/T will not work.
When I engage the A/T it increases the throttles to about 50 percent and then slowly ticks back to idle and never move anymore and speed goes down to stalling.
I have compared aircraft.cfg and .air files with the other A/Cs where the A/T works, but they all seems to be, more or less, the same.
Is it possible that there could be something in the mdl file that prevents the use of A/T?
Have I just missed something simple in a setup somewhere in the cfg or air files.
I'm going to assume that the panel itself and cfg is ok, as it works in other models.

Regards,

Lars Fors

[DaveB]

Hi Fors

I find I have the old Belfast on this pc.. used to use it as AI until I couldn't stand to see it any longer! I've had a quick look at the aircraft.cfg and the only obvious thing I don't see is this entry..
USE_NO_DEFAULT_PITCH=1
USE_NO_DEFAULT_BANK=1

Do any other aspects of the AP work with the Belfast or is it just the A/T?

ATB
DaveB

[Fors]

Hi Dave,

the two USE_NO_DEFALT_.... lines I have entered.

All other AP functions works perfectly allright, only the Autothrottle refuses to cooperate.

Cheers,

Lars F

[Scorpius]

Managed to get a complete electrical failure whilst selecting/deselecting the autothrottle! Aircraft is grounded whilst investigations are carried out.

Nev

[MALTBY D]

Hi Lars

You will need to add the PROCESSING.xml and COUNTERS.xml gauges to your panel for that autopilot to work fully.
See the Trident panel.cfg, Add something like this to your panel.cfg:-
gauge01=DM_Trident!PROCESSING, 5,5,1,1
gauge02=DM_Trident!COUNTERS, 2,2,1,1

You may need the Trident's Horizontal Situation Indicator as well. That gauge has the sense switch (top left) to chose between NAV Mode & Heading Mode for the Azimuth Master on the AP unit.

Also, I'd try the whole auto pilot section from the Trident aircraft.cfg too:-
[autopilot]
autopilot_available=1
flight_director_available=1
default_vertical_speed= 1.000
autothrottle_available=1
autothrottle_arming_required=1
autothrottle_takeoff_ga=1
autothrottle_max_rpm=95.000000
pitch_takeoff_ga=8.000000
USE_NO_DEFAULT_PITCH=1
USE_NO_DEFAULT_BANK=1
default_pitch_mode=0
default_bank_mode=0
max_pitch=14.000000
max_pitch_acceleration=2.000000
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt=2.500000
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt=1.500000
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt_breakpoint=20000.000000
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt_breakpoint=28000.000000
max_bank=25.000000
max_bank_acceleration=2.000000
max_bank_velocity=3.000000
max_throttle_rate=0.030000
nav_proportional_control=15.000000
nav_integrator_control=0.250000
nav_derivative_control=0.000000
nav_integrator_boundary=2.500000
nav_derivative_boundary=0.000000
gs_proportional_control=12.520000
gs_integrator_control=0.260000
gs_derivative_control=0.000000
gs_integrator_boundary=0.700000
gs_derivative_boundary=0.000000
yaw_damper_gain=1.000000

I never knew the Belfast (or anything else) used that same autopilot.
Good luck
DM

[DaveB]

Hi DM..

Yes mate, she was Triplex I can't see how you link to Airliners (it must have changed) but here's a link to a FD shot of one.. http://www.airliners.net/photo/HeavyLif ... 082bea14b4

ATB
DaveB

[Fors]

Hi Dave (M),

PROCESSING, COUNTERS, [Autopilot] entries, all are there.
And all combinations I can think of are tried.

The funny thing is that my Belslow panel with your AP Mk29 works fine in other AC s, but not in the Alpha Belfast.

Before I was aware of the Trident AP, I was struggling with my own Mk29 concoction and thought that my xml hacking skills had reached its limits.
But all APs with A/T I have tried behaves the same, so I feel slightly less depressed now .

Yes, reading the Belfast Pilots Notes, the AP, HSI, and AHI seems to be exactly the same in Trident and Belfast.

Any ideas? Anyone??

Cheers,

Lars F

[MALTBY D]

Thanks for the pic Dave. Nice, I fancy a go in that.

Lars, I can only guess that the problem is linked to it being a turboprop.
I've no experience of auto throttle in anything other than jets. Could be that it only works with jets in FS.

DM

[Rich]

I had this autothrottle thing with a number of aircraft closing the throttle when it was engaged.

The cure I found was to change autothrottle_max_rpm=95.000000 which is a percentage but for some reason it is being read as 95 rpm.

Try autothrottle_max_rpm=95.000000 with the actual max rpm figure less a 5 or 10 % reduction.

Works for me but maybe not for others

[Fors]

Many thanks, Rich.
That solved the problem; when I entered the actual max RPM (-10 percent) instead of the percentage figures it works !! I'm happy again and may be even less confused.
If you know HOW to solve the problem, it's soooo simple.

Also my own Mk29 works as intended! But now I rather keep Daves, looks much better.

Thanks all for the help,

Lars F