I’m new to the sim, so I spent a couple of weeks in the 152 and a couple of weeks in the 172 to get used to flying.
Today I’ve moved to the Caravan and have crashed through over stressing the aircraft 3 times in a row now.
In the 152/172 I would set the heading, set the altitude, press the heading and altitude buttons, press the AP button, press the vertical speed button, then choose the climb/decent rate.
To me the Caravan seems very similar, the buttons are just in different places.
However, following the above procedure the Caravan just nosedives. The wheel to set the vertical speed doesn’t seem to work, when moving it up or down the tooltip box doesn’t change to show I’ve selected any climb or decent rate, either up or down, it just shows 0ft.
You don’t need to press the altitude button, that’s to stay at the current altitude. That might actually be the issue – make sure the altitude target isn’t reset to the ground altitude. Try to leave that step out.
The caravan, well 1st make sure your RPM’s aren’t running in the red … if your prop rpm or your engine rpm are running in the red BOOM!
Second make sure you drop your airspeed below 148 when you make maneuvers, ie descend, turn and descend, etc. Its supposed to be a tough plane but it sure doesn’t like it when you overstress the thing.
AutoPilot,
Take off, climb to desired alt. Press FD and the AP and then ALT. this will lock you to close in of what your level is. To climb:
If you want to increase or decrease your alt by a couple of hundred feet, dial the change and press the ALT button, it will blink and the plane will start to maneuver.
If you want to change altitude by more then a couple of 100 feet then dial selected altitude, then press the v/s button, and then turn the Knob up or down until you get the rate of descent or climb that you desire…
Where does the 148 kts come from? A normal climb / descend or turn is not gonna exceed the designed limit load, just stay below Vno unless in calm undisturbed air. For full control inputs stay below Va (design maneuver speed) whatever that is on the Caravan.
I’m not familiar with the Caravan perse but I have flown with different autopilots and I don’t believe your instructions are correct.
Departure
After take-off set-up the FD (could already be done on ground if you want to):
Preselect the desired altitude
Set runway heading
FD → ON
Lateral mode: heading or nav
Vertical mode: FLC (I wouldn’t use pitch or VS)
With the thumb wheel select desired speed (or pitch / vertical speed).
At a safe altitude after take-off you could engage the AP, it will automatically capture the preselected altitude. Don’t press ALT / altitude preselect button or however it works on the Caravan, that will trigger the ALT HOLD and will level off at the current altitude.
Climb / descent
To climb / descent:
Preselect the new altitude
Select a vertical mode to get there
Climb: FLC is standard
Descent: VS is standard
Select desired speed / vs with the thumb wheel
Adjust power as required
Use of pitch or vertical speed mode during climb is not recommended as it can exceed the aircraft performance capability and cause a stall. The only time VS is used in normal operation during climb is to prevent exceeding 2000 ft/min when 2000 ft from level off and 1000 ft/min when 1000 ft from level off, this is to prevent resolution advisories due to high vertical rates (example one aircraft flying on a level 1000 ft above you, the TCAS system might predict a collision).
Vertical Speed Bug
There is an annoying bug with the VS mode which might be the root of your problem. The logic should be like this: when selecting VS or FLC the mode should activate using the present VS or speed, which you could then adjust using the thumb wheel, example:
When in cruise and selecting vertical speed the mode should activate with 0 ft/min, you can now use the thumb wheel to select -1000 ft/min for example.
In MSFS the FLC mode works as it should, the vertical speed mode however activates using the last used vertical speed! When last used the VS mode for a +1000 ft / min climb and you now select VS mode to initiate a descent the VS mode activates with +1000 ft/min!
Autopilot Bug
Another reason might be that with the autopilot engaged it is still possible to steer and overrule the autopilot, this is not possible in real life as you can’t physically move the controls when the AP is engaged. The force you apply to the controls is sensed and at a certain threshold the autopilot will disengage. In MSFS however you can steer and overrule the autopilot, so make sure your controls are absolutely centered and dead-zones are correctly set.
Conclusion
Simply said, if the flight director is showing a nose-down indication the flight director isn’t set-up correctly. If the flight director is showing correctly (not a nose dive), the cause is likely problem 2.
In any case, immediately disconnect the autopilot and recover, reduce power to idle if required as not to exceed maximum operating speed and only use small control inputs at critically high speeds during recovery.
Hope that helps a bit
Edit: I just checked using the WT G1000 NXi and everything works as it should, including the vertical speed mode.
When you press the ALT button, it selects the altitude you’re at currently, regardless of what you might have just dialed in. You can see this on the AP status monitor at the top of the PFD.
When I fly, I do plenty of prep before I ever hit the starter. I get the avionics fired up, then preset my autopilot. First I select the correct CDI indicator (GPS or Nav1/2), if I’m following a course, or I set the correct heading for departure (sometimes both). By the way, I just fly VFR, so I don’t use “procedures.” I hit the FD button and either the Nav or HDG button, depending on my need. Then I hit the B key (keyboard) to set the correct altimeter reading. When I hit the ALT button on the AP, it goes to the nearest 100’ from my current altitude. I dial in my cruise height and then select either FLC or VS. These two modes work very differently. The one not really recommended for climbing is VS. Its purpose is to maintain a constant vertical speed regardless of airspeed, so if you slow, it pitches up - which is just the opposite of what you’d want to happen. It can lead to stalling, then if you recover, you’ll find that the elevator trim is now full-up, so you’re still struggling for control. When possible, use the FLC method. Here, you choose an airspeed, and the AP sets pitch to maintain that. So if you slow, the nose goes down to allow your current power setting to maintain the selected speed.
Once all of that is done, I fire up the engine and get taxi clearance. Once airborne and cleared to make my first turn, all I have to do is press the AP master button and the plane takes over nice and easy.
I beg to differ. Especially on smaller aircraft like the 208 FLC can cause significant and very uncomfortable pitch oscillations if the air is not perfectly smooth.
VS is much more stable and a lot more passenger (and pilot) comfort minded.
I gathered that. If you do use VS for climbing, you’ll need to keep a constant watch on your speed and power settings, and reduce the VS if the plane can’t maintain a safe airspeed.
Interesting. I’ve never flown (nor am I rated to fly) a turbine… that’s an interesting bit of information.
One thing I’ve noticed on the C208 is the Torque and ITT have green bands far in excess of the restrictions set forth in the POH. Here’s (part) of what I’ve been following for proper operation:
I have blown up a couple of C208. They are quite susceptible to overspeed. I’ve learned to watch the airspeed as what gets me is establishing a decent but not pulling off the power can get you into an overspeed and ka-boom!
