reported ACLS F18 CPL Autopilot not working as intended....my fault ?

[HILOK]

just wanted to add the following experience i made on my end: NOT able to engage AP CPL nor getting tadpole at 6nm, when altering an existing mission (stock or user) by adding L4 and ACLS. seems to be related to changing an existing mission, because after setting up a brand new one, everything worked as expected.

[OLD CROW]

Well.... it's only my guess but We all have came here with a similar issue, so I own a 6 years old PC with an intel I5 at 3.2 GHz CPU, so after several attempts  to do Case III and 100% cases I finished in drinking the soap due a CPL couple/uncouple issues my guess is: Could it be related with CPU loggic processes bottle necks? I talk about CPU cause I got same issues when I call the ball with the Hornet and with the Tomcat in the Super Carrier and the LSO always say "Wave off" by omission I always call the ball even I am visually in the right path and glideslope for wire 2-3. Thanks for advance.

The mission I've used all times is the default F/A-18C Case III recovery in the Persian Gulf Map adding to the carrier the Link 4 and the ACLS options in the mission editor. All times the autopilot kept the speed vector below the glideslope bar (as shown in the video).

Edited May 16, 2022 by OLD CROW

[pokeraccio]

On 5/15/2022 at 3:31 PM, OLD CROW said:

Well.... it's only my guess but We all have came here with a similar issue, so I own a 6 years old PC with an intel I5 at 3.2 GHz CPU, so after several attempts  to do Case III and 100% cases I finished in drinking the soap due a CPL couple/uncouple issues my guess is: Could it be related with CPU loggic processes bottle necks? I talk about CPU cause I got same issues when I call the ball with the Hornet and with the Tomcat in the Super Carrier and the LSO always say "Wave off" by omission I always call the ball even I am visually in the right path and glideslope for wire 2-3. Thanks for advance.

The mission I've used all times is the default F/A-18C Case III recovery in the Persian Gulf Map adding to the carrier the Link 4 and the ACLS options in the mission editor. All times the autopilot kept the speed vector below the glideslope bar (as shown in the video).

 

In this video, I do not see the autopilot Coupled to the ACLS, just the ATC. Is that intended? 

[pokeraccio]

On 5/13/2022 at 2:13 PM, HILOK said:

just wanted to add the following experience i made on my end: NOT able to engage AP CPL nor getting tadpole at 6nm, when altering an existing mission (stock or user) by adding L4 and ACLS. seems to be related to changing an existing mission, because after setting up a brand new one, everything worked as expected.

this is an old mission I used to test things, then I've setup all the ACLS stuff and was working, keeping in mind all the current bugs about SC/F18 ACLS, so I removed all the "carrier able" AI take off/Landing waypoints... and also if using wake turbulence turn it off or lower the wind speed...   

 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3322202/

[pokeraccio]

On 5/13/2022 at 7:43 AM, sideshow said:

I have yet to get ACLS to work. I set everything up in mission editor. In mission I get and follow all of the DATA queues. When I get the ACL ready command on the MFD, and the boat says "switch mode 2" I engage auto throttle and couple the auto pilot. Right under 6 miles, at 1200 feet and on angle.  Instead of getting the CPL P/R, I get CPL HDG and the aircraft starts climbing.  I feel like I must be missing one little step.  Any suggestions?

 

You have for sure some "carrier able" AI with takeoff/landing waypoint around in your Mix. try to delete them (at least their specific waypoint).

 

[OLD CROW]

2 hours ago, pokeraccio said:

In this video, I do not see the autopilot Coupled to the ACLS, just the ATC. Is that intended? 

Nope it was not my intention also I checked twice AP was really Coupled. From my own research at home seems there's something wrong when you try to modify the carrier parameters in the default mission CASE III recovery. I've tried today to make a new mission from scratch with no other AI than the autopilot and ZERO issues and wire 3 with strong wind. Now I think this is like religion, computering or doing the Indiana Jones: It's a leap of faith: whatever one day doesn't work next works fine, just cause you do it from scratch. But I got to say that making a clean and clear mission from others AI controlled units is far away from being a definetly solution.

Thanks anyway. I also attached the mssion if someone is interested in it.

PG_SC_TEST_ACLS.miz

Edited May 16, 2022 by OLD CROW

[pokeraccio]

55 minutes ago, OLD CROW said:

Nope it was not my intention also I checked twice AP was really Coupled. From my own research at home seems there's something wrong when you try to modify the carrier parameters in the default mission CASE III recovery. I've tried today to make a new mission from scratch with no other AI than the autopilot and ZERO issues and wire 3 with strong wind. Now I think this is like religion, computering or doing the Indiana Jones: It's a leap of faith: whatever one day doesn't work next works fine, just cause you do it from scratch. But I got to say that making a clean and clear mission from others AI controlled units is far away from being a definetly solution.

Thanks anyway. I also attached the mssion if someone is interested in it.

PG_SC_TEST_ACLS.miz 8.6 kB · 0 downloads

 

The problems about the default mission are because there are others “carrier able” AI with takeoff/landing waypoint as it seems interfering with acls, if you remove them, the acls will work as it should be. ED is investigating. If we want a little bit of life around and use the ACLS, now we are stuck with just let them spawn in flight and orbit… defenely a bug.

Edited May 16, 2022 by pokeraccio

[OLD CROW]

I've just downloaded latest beta release a couple hours ago. I tested twice my own CASE III with the new hotfix and these are the results: Before hotfix I drank the soup a couple miles before reaching the carrier, so the autopilot put the plane below the glideslope path, now 100% times the autopilot is putting the A/C over the glideslope path so I got to uncouple it and do manually all the corrections for not overshooting the carrier. Also the autothrottle and the autopilot are very rude in the initial corrections for the AOA and the glideslope. I attached the video also the miz file. I still guessing there's a delay is the AI logical processes for "lower" CPU's.

 

 

PG_SC_TEST_ACLS.miz

[pokeraccio]

21 hours ago, OLD CROW said:

I've just downloaded latest beta release a couple hours ago. I tested twice my own CASE III with the new hotfix and these are the results: Before hotfix I drank the soup a couple miles before reaching the carrier, so the autopilot put the plane below the glideslope path, now 100% times the autopilot is putting the A/C over the glideslope path so I got to uncouple it and do manually all the corrections for not overshooting the carrier. Also the autothrottle and the autopilot are very rude in the initial corrections for the AOA and the glideslope. I attached the video also the miz file. I still guessing there's a delay is the AI logical processes for "lower" CPU's.

 

 

PG_SC_TEST_ACLS.miz 8.6 kB · 2 downloads

Hi, @OLD CROW I've tested your mix and it was working good by my side, (the only difference from your video the mix it is day time).

Something I notice from your video is that when I couple the system I have CPLD P/R on HUD and on UFC I have only :CPL the other windows "BALT" and "RALT" are blanked.

Have you tried to engage autopilot ":CPL" just after you get ACL RDY on the left DDI?

what I do, is after the LND checks (geardown, flaps full), I stabilize the AOA on speed when I'm on :BALT 1200, then engage ATC to maintain it, then when I have ACL RDY on the left DDI I engage the autopilot :CPL. Did that on your mix, and was working.

 

[OLD CROW]

2 hours ago, pokeraccio said:

what I do, is after the LND checks (geardown, flaps full), I stabilize the AOA on speed when I'm on :BALT 1200, then engage ATC to maintain it, then when I have ACL RDY on the left DDI I engage the autopilot :CPL. Did that on your mix, and was working.

Thanks mate I will bear all your inputs in mind.

2 hours later: problem solved!!! 

The problem is when you couple the A/P (CPL button) in the time gap from the ATC couple and the left DDI ACL RDY announcement. If you couple both almost at the same time A/C becomes a mustang horse (uncontrolled nose up/down also rude banking left/right), but when you couple ATC at (aprox.) 140 IAS wait patiently til ACL RDY tilt in DDI and then press the CPL button and the A/C goes into glideslope and on speed AOA in a really smooth way. I tried a couple of times and it worked fine.

Edited May 20, 2022 by OLD CROW

[richskinns]

ACLS couples correctly brings me to a perfect approach- hook skips wire and bolter called 

I have done 20+ of exactly the same approaches all ending in bolters... something wrong here?  

 

ED track file attached 

Hornet Lnding Bolter ACLS May20. 2trk.trk

[pokeraccio]

2 hours ago, OLD CROW said:

Thanks mate I will bear all your inputs in mind.

2 hours later: problem solved!!! 

The problem is when you couple the A/P (CPL button) in the time gap from the ATC couple and the left DDI ACL RDY announcement. If you couple both almost at the same time A/C becomes a mustang horse (uncontrolled nose up/down also rude banking left/right), but when you couple ATC at (aprox.) 140 IAS wait patiently til ACL RDY tilt in DDI and then press the CPL button and the A/C goes into glideslope and on speed AOA in a really smooth way. I tried a couple of times and it worked fine.

 

Nice, even if I think in real F18, you should be able to select CPL since the start of the approach.

8 minutes ago, richskinns said:

ACLS couples correctly brings me to a perfect approach- hook skips wire and bolter called 

I have done 20+ of exactly the same approaches all ending in bolters... something wrong here?  

 

ED track file attached 

Hornet Lnding Bolter ACLS May20. 2trk.trk 4.57 MB · 0 downloads

we have more than one bug going on with ACLS, one of them is about the wake turbulence option (when turned on) handling capabilities and sometimes with strong wind, ship speed >12

should work now with something around this:

ship speed 11Kts and wind on axis 10Kts (also with wake turb on), tested also with no wake turb and ship speed 15kts and wind on axis up to 20kts.

[macedk]

On 5/1/2022 at 12:43 AM, colasmulo said:

I cannot remember  from when I remember this, but I remember a feature not working correctly once before with a unit already placed in a mission file created before the update. The testing I've done and the infos gathered on this post lead me to believe this is what is happening here. When playing a mission already existing before the update with ACLS, the carrier/hornet does bot behave as expected. When flying a mission created after the update, it works as intended.

I was able to replicate this multiple times during my testing.

What I need to finally test is if a new carrier is placed in an older mision, if it fixes it or not.

If anyone wants to try the same with their old vs new mission to confirm or not my thnking don't hesitate to share results !

 

Edit : Can confirm placing a new carrier and setting it up in an already existing mission will make the ACLS work as expected (Wag's video for reference), while a CV already placed before the update , but configured the same way will not work as intended (no mode 1 on ACLS display and no proper autopilot.

 

Thx a million, this was driving me crazy

[chase]

On 5/27/2022 at 9:32 AM, macedk said:

Thx a million, this was driving me crazy

I believe the post you quoted was prior to the dcs patch which should of fixed this issue. Are you still finding this to be true? That being "A CV already placed before the update , but configured the same way will not work as intended (no mode 1 on ACLS display and no proper autopilot."

Cause i especially find this still to be true with the Raven One Campaign

Dave

 

[macedk]

36 minutes ago, chase said:

I believe the post you quoted was prior to the dcs patch which should of fixed this issue. Are you still finding this to be true? That being "A CV already placed before the update , but configured the same way will not work as intended (no mode 1 on ACLS display and no proper autopilot."

Cause i especially find this still to be true with the Raven One Campaign

Dave

 

The culprit could also be, that the carrier was not a SC boat from the start. So ols Stennis boat changed to ABE

 

[chase]

5 hours ago, macedk said:

The culprit could also be, that the carrier was not a SC boat from the start. So ols Stennis boat changed to ABE

Nope the mission was made with the super carrier from day one. It's still broken. The campaign dev's updated their SC to include the 

Link 4 and ACLS but it still don't work. I just literately just opened the miz in the ME, added my own SC next to their SC added my own freqs and only my ship worked. 

I tried approaches on both and only mine worked. So this is an ongoing bug

[macedk]

13 hours ago, chase said:

Nope the mission was made with the super carrier from day one. It's still broken. The campaign dev's updated their SC to include the 

Link 4 and ACLS but it still don't work. I just literately just opened the miz in the ME, added my own SC next to their SC added my own freqs and only my ship worked. 

I tried approaches on both and only mine worked. So this is an ongoing bug

RGR :).
Nice work on the testing

[kfrasson]

So, I would have to go to ME and reconfigure all carriers? why not just put a simple batch file attached to the COM Menu?

"Enable ACLS Link 4"

[dr_anthony]

+1. Removing AI acft "starting from the deck" from carrier in ME solving problem with no mode 1 and AP CPLD P/R. In my end

[Lordfacker84]

excuse me guys, i've tried the acls but it seems that it don't compensate well burble effect , wind, and carrier speed...is it normal? it always do bolter every time. is it a bug or it is the correct limit of the system?

[pokeraccio]

5 hours ago, Lordfacker84 said:

excuse me guys, i've tried the acls but it seems that it don't compensate well burble effect , wind, and carrier speed...is it normal? it always do bolter every time. is it a bug or it is the correct limit of the system?

Yes, It's one of the reported bugs.

[Lordfacker84]

2 hours ago, pokeraccio said:

Yes, It's one of the reported bugs.

ah ok thanks very much....so another bug 

[Lowlyslows]

Any update on getting Mode 1 to show up? It just says ACL Ready with T/C under it at 6nm

[CH4Pz]

On 7/7/2022 at 7:20 AM, Lordfacker84 said:

excuse me guys, i've tried the acls but it seems that it don't compensate well burble effect , wind, and carrier speed...is it normal? it always do bolter every time. is it a bug or it is the correct limit of the system?

You can disable wake turbulance and it works ok, except for this CPL HDG thing when theres other flights

[lonewwolf]

I've notice (maybe it has already been said) If create a mission from scratch with supercarrier, D/L and ACLS Activated, everything works normaly I can do a complete handsfree autoland in the carrier.

but if I loaded a mission previously created by DCS users, before the ACLS update, and set existing supercarrier with D/L and ACLS activated on that mission, save it, and then try to do CASE III autoland I get that CPL HDG error... it's happening on every mission created before the update.

I also tried to "replace" the carrier by another one, from scratch, but it didn't fix the problem.

So, a bug maybe ?