How do I force autopilot to follow a flight plan (steer to waypoints).

[Madman1]

Why the hell does the A-10C II not have an autopilot that can follow waypoints? All that this stupid thing seems to be able to do is hold heading, altitude, bank and "path" (but not an actual path.) The A-10C II has a super complex in-cockpit computer that can set up elaborate flight plans but the autopilot doesn't know what do to with them.

I don't know what's worse, the SU-25T and it's terrible autopilot that can't fly straight and wants to crash you into the ground when you try to use it to follow waypoints or the A-10C II that can't even try to follow waypoints.

Anyone got a mod that fixes this glaring omission?

[Ivandrov]

Because the autopilot doesn't have a route follow mode for the jet. The LAAP acts through the Stability Augmentation System which only has channels for Pitch and Yaw. There's no roll channel to be able to automatically make turns.

"Path" refers to flight path. I.E. it'll approximately hold your velocity vector in place.

Edited 17 hours ago by Ivandrov

[Madman1]

So there's no workaround or mod for this? What a shame. 

[Yurgon]

18 hours ago, Madman1 said:

Why [...] does the A-10C II not have an autopilot that can follow waypoints?

The A-10A did not have any autopilot at all. Pilots crossing the Atlantic en route to the middle East in 1990 for Operation Desert Shield had to hand-fly many hours in lose formation with tankers. What fun that must have been!

The Low Altitude Autopilot with its fairly basic modes is thus a big step forward and allows pilots to spend more time heads down and focus on the mission.

While I'm not sure if it actually played a role, USAF leadership was never a fan of the A-10 and has tried many times to get rid of it. The request for additional funds might not have gone down well with them.

Plus there are probably technical reasons.

1 hour ago, Madman1 said:

So there's no workaround or mod for this? What a shame. 

None that I know of.

Just to clarify, are you mad at Fairchild Republic or at DCS? Because DCS is a simulation, and adding an autopilot that doesn't exist on the real aircraft would put it in fairy tale land. And criticism towards the aircraft's manufacturer is a bit ill-placed in a forum about its simulation.

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, Yurgon said:

The A-10A did not have any autopilot at all. Pilots crossing the Atlantic en route to the middle East in 1990 for Operation Desert Shield had to hand-fly many hours in lose formation with tankers. What fun that must have been!

The Low Altitude Autopilot with its fairly basic modes is thus a big step forward and allows pilots to spend more time heads down and focus on the mission.

While I'm not sure if it actually played a role, USAF leadership was never a fan of the A-10 and has tried many times to get rid of it. The request for additional funds might not have gone down well with them.

Plus there are probably technical reasons.

None that I know of.

Just to clarify, are you mad at Fairchild Republic or at DCS? Because DCS is a simulation, and adding an autopilot that doesn't exist on the real aircraft would put it in fairy tale land. And criticism towards the aircraft's manufacturer is a bit ill-placed in a forum about its simulation.

Agreed, while DCS has a TLAR (That Looks About Right) attitude sometimes, it generally doesn't skimp on the details that can be done and such.

[Madman1]

I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.

One of the reasons I bought the A-10C II was becasue of how terrible the autopilot for the SU-25T is. Half the time the autopilot for the SU-25T can't fly in a straight line when you tell it to (keeps banking back and forth instead of flying level), it overshoots waypoints and then makes a whacky back-and-forth set of turns to get lined up to the next waypoint, dives down and then pulls up when you engage the dam thing (which will fly you into the ground if you engage it too low), etc. In other words it flies like a pilot that's had too much vodka. I thought for sure the A-10C was going to have a better autopilot than that.

Imagine my disappointment when I found out that the A-10 can't even try to follow waypoints. I mean sure, it can actually fly in a straight-and-level line every time you ask it to so that's better that what the SU-25T can do. It's just that for all it's faults the SU-25T at least manages to try get you to the next waypoint (if it doesn't fly you into the ground first.) Meanwhile autopilot on the A-10C doesn't even know what a waypoint is, much less how to get to one.

I really don't care why the autopilot on the A-10C can't fly waypoints and I'm not interested in playing the blame game here. I was just hoping that there was some kind of fix or mod or workaround. Thanks for the reply.

[Yurgon]

1 hour ago, Madman1 said:

One of the reasons I bought the A-10C II was becasue of how terrible the autopilot for the SU-25T is.

Errr, okay. Well if you intend to purchase another module based on deficiencies of one you already own, feel free to ask ahead of time if it offers the features you desire. Better yet, if you installed DCS via digitalcombatsimulator.com (not via Steam), you can Trial most products for free for 2 weeks. Just check out the big fat TRIAL button on the E-Shop.