Bank angle limit while using Altitude Hold Autopilot?

[GunSlingerAUS]

I'm practicing flying Case 3 Marshals in the clouds, and am struggling with using the autopilot to maintain altitude. I can engage it fine, no dramas, she'll fly straight and level at the required altitude with no dramas. As soon as I give it a little bit of bank, the A/P Ref light turns on - is that normal?

 

If I turn in a shallow bank up to 20 degrees of bank, she maintains altitude, though she does start slowly descending, at around 100fpm. However, if I hit 30 degrees of bank, she starts dropping out of the sky at around 400fpm. But I've been told it can handle up to 45 degrees of bank during altitude hold - this seems to be untrue?

[sLYFa]

The AP, once engaged, will hold ATTITUDE. The ALTITUDE hold mode, if engaged by placing the ALT mode switch forward and pressing the pinky switch, will automatically disengage when the stick is moved and the AP will revert to ATTITUDE hold, as indicated by the A/P REF light if (ALT hold is selected but not engaged with the pinky switch).

[GunSlingerAUS]

The AP, once engaged, will hold ATTITUDE. The ALTITUDE hold mode, if engaged by placing the ALT mode switch forward and pressing the pinky switch, will automatically disengage when the stick is moved and the AP will revert to ATTITUDE hold, as indicated by the A/P REF light if (ALT hold is selected but not engaged with the pinky switch).

 

Sorry, should have been clearer - I have indeed been activating alt-hold mode, turns out that the AP ref (NWS) button needs to be pressed again if more than 10lbs of force is applied to the stick during any AP mode. So, I just need to start banking at the correct angle, then hit the NWS button again to re-engage AP.

[eatthis]

tip it over at 30 degrees then press the pinky switch again