AP Heading Hold

[KenK]

One of the things I have trouble keeping track of is the darn AP Heading Hold setting. Is it ON? Is it OFF? I lose track of this sometimes and find myself fighting with the aircraft while I'm trying to align the reticle to launch ordinance.

 

The only way I know of to check the setting is to pan down and look at the button. Is there nothing on the HUD, HSI, warning lights, or somewhere that I can glance at without panning the view?

 

It seems odd that altimiter hold has a warning light but not heading hold. How do you guys keep track of this?

 

Cheers,

Ken

[JG14_Smil]

You can tell as soon as you touch and release the trim button. The heading carrat will reset each time. You don't shut off the blue light, you put the DT/DH dwitch in the middle. Pilots usually know what they are doing... takes awhile for us simmers to learn.

Edited September 16, 2012 by JG14_Smil

[Ich666]

By leaving it on ;)

On a more serious note: The Autopilot channels in the Black Shark arent exactly Autopilots in the same way as they are in a conventional aircraft. They wont switch themselves off, but will constantly try to hold the parameters you tell them to hold. That is done by releasing the Trim Button, so I suggest you either hold down the Trim Button during your maneuvers or you give some quick input "fighting" the Autopilot in order to line up your shots. Both alternatives work fairly well, also if youre hovering you can use "Auto turn to Target", which will do the exact same thing except you wont have to fight the autopilot. I suggest you read more into how the Trimmer mechanism works and all of a sudden it wont feel as weird as it probably does right now :)

[KenK]

Oh, you guys are right. I do not trim nearly enough. It did not seem necessary when I was flying level at speed and just needed to add some rudder to adjust for the next target. Thanks for the advice.