I fly the 172 in real life and so far I am also enjoying flying the MSFS 172 (the classic version, with gauges) for VFR flights. It’s far from perfect, but does the job in my opinion.
One things that annoys me a bit though is the behavior of Bendix/King KAP140 Autopilot.
It works “ok” , but in real life, when you click on the AP button it should capture the aircraft attitude, including the current rate of climb. However, in the sim, it levels the aircraft immediately which is not correct.
So my question is: do you know any quick fix, workaround or any mod that could prevent that and simulate the correct behavior ?
I think at the moment there is no mod or a fix. Microsoft has to fix the AP and the avionics for every plane.
If you fly the planes with the Garmin 1000 or 3000 there are mods available.
But I know what you mean the classic gauges are likly better it is a different feeling more oldschool😊
Thank you. Yes I know, and this is what I know the best that’s why I prefer the gauges and classic AP. I know for the G1000 mod, It’s great work from the author but still, the autopilot is not convincing.
Yes thats true but the Autopilot is also broken for the M20R from Carenado. I really love this plane but yeah only Flyable without AP. I hope Asobo will fix this soon
They are backlit - but you have to use the radio panel (topmost) light switch inner knurled knob to turn it up. It is sometimes tricky to get the mouse cursor to appear, has no fine control like most knobs, and you need to hide the yoke to get at it. There doesn’t appear to be any command that you can use to do this - just off & on for panel, pedestal and glareshield lighting. Nothing specicific anywhere to the C172.
Is it me or is the 172 AP getting worse? When trying to use a controller, I absolutely cannot control it by assigning commands to buttons - they are not consistent with the functions that should be there. The Heading toggle for example, turns on HDG mode, but also immediately zeroes the Heading to that which I am flying. Clicking on the cockpit button does not do this. Assigning a command to toggle VS mode does not work either - it just changes ALT to VS, but does not change modes - the ft per minute display does not come up. Clicking on the 3d button usually works, but not always. Setting ALT mode via a controller, sets the Altitude reading to the current Altitude regardless of what I had it set to. Pressing the 3d button leaves the altitude setting as is, and neither of them alter the Altitude flown in any way. When I can get the FPM reading in VS mode it cancels after a few seconds. When it does work, it more likely than not ignores the altitude setting and just climbs forever - with no FPM reading to indicate. Oh and the ALT arm button is inop.
All in, all, I can usually get basic level flight, sometime get it to ascend and descend, follow a heading or GPS as long as I manually click on the buttons in cockpit. Not really a great start considering that this is one of their premium aircraft.
For me the AP behaviour is very eratic and not consistent. Like there is no logic in the behaviour even when it work wrongly. It will work wrongly in some way on Monday and and work wrongly another way on Tuesday
I have noticed this too. It makes it quite difficult to submit bugs when they can not reliably be reproduced. Sometimes, even when typing a query on the forum about something not working - a prime example being the 10degree rotation of the heading bug knob. Sometimes it just starts working smoothly. Next flight back to 10 degree jumps.
What is wrong with it is pretty clear, and it should be possible to mod the js, to make it work correctly.
Apart from Cosmetic issues, the main Operation issue, is that it does not capture the VS, when AP is selected, but instead use the last VS that teh unit had, when it was AP was used to disable it.
The other issue is that there is no wrong plane specific Limits on the AP’s Min/max VS,
The fix would be.
(1) Init the AP’s VS to the Planes VSI is AP is turned ON, provided the plane’s VS is within limits … otherwise ignore the AP turn on
(2) Limit the VS UP/Down to the same above limits.
Just that would go a VERY long way to making the AP less of a death trap.
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Te PITA work around at the moment, if you so not want the AP to destabilize the plane, is to make sure you are at ZERO VS, when you turn on the AP,
and
Before turning OFF the AP, making sure the AP’s VS is set to zero.
Yes – you really want to have to do that when you are flying !!!
The fixes should be a lot less complex than some of these GPS Mods !!!