Flight Training - IFR Navigation - VOR Basics

HI, I’m struggling with the training flight in VOR Basics (Flight Training - IFR Navigation) and wondered if anyone could give me a few pointers.

I’m on a PC and have no addons. I’ve worked my way through all the other training missions and have (eventually) managed to get an “A” on them.

There is quite a lot going on (or at least there is for me) trying to keep to the assigned altitude and course and so I’ve resorted to using the autopilot… but I may well be going about it in the wrong way.

I set the heading on the heading knob and then set it to “on” with the HDG button and do the same with the altitude knob and the ALT button. I then press the AP button and it stays on the right heading but keeps losing altitude, or if it’s already lost altitude, doesn’t climb back up to where I’ve set it to.

If I then engage the flight stick it disengages the autopilot and it all goes horribly wrong and I lose the heading and altitude.

More practice required (almost certainly). Or am I losing a trick?

Any advice gratefully received. I seem to be “stalled” here.

Do NOT use the AP.
Train more to keep the plane stable.
Trim it!!!
Trim it!!!
And again:
Trim it!!!

Here is a video I did on tracking TO and FROM a VOR and flying an airway. It’s in the TBM but the concepts are the same. A Navigraph map is on the screen so the aircraft position can be seen while the airway is being flown. And as the previous poster said, trim it. If having altitude issues, trim is your friend. Learn VOR Navigation | Navigraph Moving Map | Microsoft Flight Simulator - YouTube

If you want to learn more about trim and basics of flight, I am doing a Learn to Fly series and I get into trim, basics of flight, and things like adverse yaw and why rudder is needed. There are 18 videos in that playlist that can be found here: Straight and Level | Climbs | Turns | Descent | Standard Rate Turns | Adverse Yaw - YouTube

I have a Discord server on the about page of my YouTube channel. If you need more help and have Discord, feel free to message me there.

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Thank you both for your replies. I’ll try as you say.

Finally got there. Thanks for your help.

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