can't Autohover

[majapahit]

can fly from spot to spot

can land safely

 

cannot Autohover

 

I start the 'shooting range' mission

autostart 'cheat'

 

I set throttle to 'auto' / ~middle marker

collector to lift off slowly

 

make sure I'm level

make sure I'm <5 speed

make sure I'm >10-30mtr<

set Autopilot ON, and to 'radar height' / lights up overhead

no trim / or reset

hit the Hover button, ctrlEnter shows an H / overhead light shows

little square in the HUD

 

and the heli goes left and right all over the place, won't hover

 

???

 

what am I missing

 

look at my signature, I use a MS FF, happens with the Yoke also

I'm making sure only 1 definition is actieve

running TrackIR 4 and 1900x1080 windowed

Windows 7 RC 7100

 

thx

mt

[159th_Viper]

Post the Track of the Mission in which you experience the behaviour as you have described and we'll take it from there.

[Distiler]

You say "autopilot ON". You mean route autopilot or autopilot channels (the blue square buttons). You need those last ones engaged, but not route autopilot! ThenJjst trim for hover and engage autohover.

[majapahit]

found it

indeed, had the channels not on

had defined buttons for ALT HDG BANK PTCH (& DIR & RADIO)

and use(d) the ALT for - what I thought ON/OFF

and somwhere in the secuence, the HDG BNK PTCH get switched Off

 

when I (auto) startup the lights are on (BNK PTCH HDG)

but somewhere onroute

when I switch autoALT On and then RADARalt, somwthing switches off?

or perhaps when Trim?

 

and when I make a 'bumo' and touch the ground, and hover again

after that BNK and PTCH wont anymore come On?

 

so what shoud(nt) I do?

or rather whats the proper flight sequence, or rather Autopilot sequence

and how do you make sure BNK and PTCH are allways ON?

 

thx

mt

Edited August 5, 2009 by majapahit

[Smoky]

This is covered in the manual. :music_whistling:

 

If you go below 5m or so your auto hover will disengage. I believe other APs are disengaged as well. They must be clicked off then on again.. Been a while since I've done that so double check me.

 

As for auto hover, you must use trim. MUST. Trim while flying = snapshot for the computer of your flight behavior to use for nav aids. Trim while hover = snapshot for the computer of your flight behavior to use for hover computations.

 

Hint: You can "auto hover" in a variety of ways. Eg, with heading hold off, you can trim, and the remaining computers will still hold the heli, giving you freedom to yaw around.

 

The biggest mistake people make is assuming this all works like a regular airplane. The "autopilot" is only for following routes and isn't all that automated, really. The "auto hover" is more a "lock onto the snapshot the pilot sent the computer" process. You have to feed the computer info for these systems to work. It's not just flip a switch and the heli holds itself. Trim is the main input the flight computer needs to make auto hover work. You must trim both from the stick and if you want alt hold, from the collective as well. So you must trim twice to obtain a hands-off hover hold.

 

I'm inebriated at the moment, so I hope that's clear. PM me if you have more questions and I can walk you through it.

 

But READ THE MANUAL. This is covered very well.

[nemises]

^^ well said, this is a great explaination

[majapahit]

have a MS FF stick

so had to reverse input

also

when reducing forces in the setup its a Lot easier to trim

 

i found out

 

can fly now

 

if oinly I could shoot

[Smoky]

Also easier to trim if you reduce the axis curve around center (default is linear I believe).

 

Shooting isn't difficult either. Just takes practice of procedure and learning to use the tools available (eg. auto hover + helmet site target designation + target follow).

 

Read manual, practice. The manual is organized a lot like a text book in some places. Read what they describe, then try it, then re-read it again, then try it again. You'll get targeting, locking, and destroying down in no time.

 

 

Just wait until you need to start manually creating nav points, assigning wingmen routes, and managing your gps/sat sync WHILE flying and shooting and staying hidden. That's the tough stuff (well, not really...but it is overloading so it is challenging).

[majapahit]

problem with the manual is

(at least mine?) it relates to the Russion icons and labels (that are absent in my ka-50)

 

took me ages to find out where the 'route follow' knob was

 

WHEREs THE ENGLISH MANUAL (&*&(^%$^#