Autopilot Adjustment

[dresoccer4]

so i've looked for a detailed description of this on here but couldn't really find one. i wanted to know exactly what "Autopilot Adjustment" does in the special menu. I kind of know that it allows the engineer to fiddle with the autopilot dials, but still vague on what the goal is or how to use it to my advantage.

 

when would you want to have this enabled? can you control what the dude does somehow? i've noticed that during flight if my RPM drops a little low all of the autopilots will be turned off, and if i turn the main one back on and i'm not perfectly straight, it will continually try to put me into a bad attitude (patch and roll, not mood :lol: ) and i can never fly straight and level. does this correct that somehow?

 

thanks for any insight!

[Art-J]

First of all, never let the "RPM to drop a little low", rotor RPM that is, because that's what both generators are geared with - below ~88% they switch off... and thus, half of the damn systems go down with them, including autopilot.

 

"Autopilot adjustment" option does indeed make the AI flight engineer adjust roll & pitch channels all the time. A bit slowly I admit, but sufficiently if You're not handling the chopper like a hamfisted redneck (which You probably do, if You overload the rotor, see above :D). The point is increasing roll & pitch stability, that's what the autopilot was included in this beast, and that's why it's mandatory equipment on the startup list (doesn't have an "off" button for the same reason, You're never supposed to be flying with it off).

 

If You feel like the AI engineer messes up with Your inputs too much, You can use other option - turning the "autopilot adjustment" off, and "activating" the guy manually only when You want him to do the adjustment (there's a key assignment for that in controls menu, "autopilot" group, but I don't remember how it's called, 'cause I don't use it). Then it works like this - You turn the AP on, but nothing happens until You hit the adjustment key - the AI engineer will then confirm he does the adjustments, but only for this particular attitude/speed, then he will stop. If You want him to readjust later, You have to hit the key again.

[dresoccer4]

First of all, never let the "RPM to drop a little low", rotor RPM that is, because that's what both generators are geared with - below ~88% they switch off... and thus, half of the damn systems go down with them, including autopilot.

 

"Autopilot adjustment" option does indeed make the AI flight engineer adjust roll & pitch channels all the time. A bit slowly I admit, but sufficiently if You're not handling the chopper like a hamfisted redneck (which You probably do, if You overload the rotor, see above :D)....

 

thanks for the reply, art. well, i am from Kentucky so acting like a "hamfisted redeck" is sort of our thing :smilewink: . but in all seriousness, one of my goals in life is to NOT let the RPM drop low enough to disengage the generators but, c'est la vie.

 

ill try it with the manual engineer button and see how it feels. currently with autopilot adjustment switched on it feels like hes constantly fighting me. this is how i felt with the ka-50 until discovering the flight director button.

 

what's the "proper" way to handle the engineer/autopilot role? as in, what do proficient Mi-8 virtual pilots do?

[Art-J]

That is a very good question! I still haven't made a final decision whether to leave this guy "on" all the time, or poke him manually. It seems neither of these two options is great for all flight regimes. On one hand I don't want him to screw up my inputs during transitional manoeuvres and hovering, on the other these are THE situations where increased stability and controllability is needed the most, but with one tiny brain and only two hands I cannot control two crew stations simultaneously myself :D.

 

Lately I think I've been getting more comfortable with auto-adjustment all the time, while trimming the cyclic much more often and avoiding overaggressive maneuvers, so that the guy can "catch up" with my inputs and not actually fight me.

[dresoccer4]

...Lately I think I've been getting more comfortable with auto-adjustment all the time, while trimming the cyclic much more often and avoiding overaggressive maneuvers, so that the guy can "catch up" with my inputs and not actually fight me.

 

sounds like a logical plan. ill give it some more practice and see if the engineer and i can come to a mutual understanding :)

[ebabil]

How can we switch to autopilot heading hold on/off?

it isn't engage when the pedals are pressed, if i let the pedals go and centered, my plane acts like crazy till autopilot engaged. same when disengaging it.

how can i make smooth trasitions between autopilot and manual flight?