ATR 42/72 Flight Director stops working after takeoff only reactivates when autopilot is engaged

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1

The Flight Director stops working right after takeoff when the aircraft leaves the ground. During the roll and initial rotation everything works normally, but once airborne the FD no longer provides correct guidance or appears to be inactive.

The issue is reproducible consistently.

The FD only starts working again when I activate the autopilot (AP). As soon as the AP is engaged, the FD immediately becomes active again.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Start a flight (cold & dark or ready state)

  2. Take off normally with FD enabled

  3. After rotation / when airborne, observe FD behavior

  4. FD stops responding or disappears

  5. Engage autopilot → FD immediately works again

Expected behavior:
The Flight Director should remain active during all phases of flight.

atr issue
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2

Seems like now would be a good time to pull the ATR off the market so that we don’t see 70 to 100 bug reports every day…

3

Noticed this too. Basically cant handly it using the FD as I notice it does not capture waypoint changes too. Voted.

4

I also noticed when switching FD on either side OFF, the roll bar disappears. It should remain visibile for the side with FD selected of course.

5

I completed the FMS input, finished all the necessary settings, and then attempted a takeoff.
The FD was functioning correctly. The AP had not been engaged yet.

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6

If you turn YD on? Perhaps it is related somehow? YD is usually engaged immediately after gear retraction.

Edit: the original poster does not not YD on either, so guess this is not related.

CaptainMaresca 7

8

Try IAS mode without the VNAV maybe?

9

I tried using VNAV and only IAS mode (following Captain Magnar’s video), and the result is the same

10

I feel really bad for those experiencing issues; it must be incredibly frustrating. I’m not sure why the user experience differs so much, but fortunately, FD is functioning normally for me.

11

Same Issue at my System

Chewwy94 13

Thank you for the bug report.

We have created an internal ticket to see if our team already has this logged, and if not they will attempt to reproduce the issue and create a new bug report. This item is now marked as feedback-logged. If there is an existing bug report or one is created, we will move this thread to bug-logged.

1 Like
14

Same issue with me on Xbox series X in the ATR 72-600 passenger version. I could have sworn it worked fine on my very first flight in it but no matter what I do I can’t seem to get it to work again

15

I had this problem two days ago, I didn’t have it yesterday, I have it again today. I played around with using and not using VNAV and using/not using the magenta speed setting. As above when I select autopilot the flight director rights itself.

16

The FD only works as long as AP is on. Once I turn it off the FD keeps giving the same cues as when the AP was turned off. If it was in a right bank when I turned off the AP, the FD will keep me in a right bank.

It seems the FD reverts to pitch/roll hold whenever the AP is not engaged. Non of the videos above show a working FD.

17

That video does not show a working FD. You end the video before you reach the waypoint. Does it give you turn cues when you reach the WP?

18

I intentionally stopped the video before engaging the AP. The purpose was to show that the FD was working properly even before the AP was activated.

Just because I said I didn’t have any issues doesn’t mean there are no bugs. At the time I recorded that video, the FD was functioning correctly.

When the AP is engaged, the FD does follow the flight path as expected.

The bug that you are describing does exist.

19

I managed a takeoff and the FD worked straight away. If I remember right, after engine start I pressed Auto for the speed and then went up to the FCU and pressed HDG, followed by NAV, followed by IAS. Other than dialling the heading to match the runway, I didn’t touch anything else. So it seems perhaps that pressing VNAV causes the issues? Will try it again at soon as I can but worth others trying this as well?

20

This issue is intermittent and comes and goes. In one flight, the FD bug was not present, but when I repeated the flight using the exact same procedure, the bug occurred.

21

Definitely intermittent - next attempt at a flight and they didn’t work. You can tell though whether they are going to work or not. If they are going to work, the vertical FD bar will lead you towards the heading that has been dialled in, even when on the ground. If they aren’t going to work, they stay stuck in the centre