cheers dudes!
Thanks! I’ll guess its bad luck then. At least it loads into some of the parking spots. I’ve read world updates can cause some weird behaviour in the sim. So with time it may fix itself. Flying is still possible and still a lot of fun in the jet.
Flew the updated version last night and the aircraft has some great improvements, although I’m not a fan of the red cross when selecting MFD functions. Can someone confirm as to whether or not the “Dim” function dims the whole MFD. I was flying last night and the"Dim" button only dims the RH side of the MFD, am I missing a button that does the LH side or something? The autopilot seems to be improved, however it still does the rapid uncommanded roll to the right at times.
OK, F-35 newbie here. Picked this aircraft up in the recent sale and am enjoying it so far apart from some AP basics. I’ve watched a how to video, but it seems like A/P has been changed a lot since video was produced? So how do you get A/P NAV modes to engage? The A/P in general seems a bit weird. No A/T selector any more? No A/P toggle in top bar, only on screen in MFD2. You can engage A/P in MFD2 then do ALT HOLD, and also change ALT, and do SPEED holds just fine, but NAV modes are proving difficult to engage for me. HDG hold works only sometimes, while RTE hold is non functional with a world map route used and green line displayed in CDI.
I’ve tried toggling CDI to RTE or OFF, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Can someone tell me what I’m doing wrong?
In below screengrab A/P is happily holding ALT and Airspeed, but will not track selected heading. Sometimes I find HDG SEL mode can ‘kick in’ and start working but why does it only engage sometimes? and seems inconsistent as to when and how to get it to start working.
This is with the F-35 B variant.
Also, what does this mean in the manual-
- User can now select between legacy and alternate autopilot logic in the MENU options:
Legacy: default MSFS fly-by-wire autopilot (which has some issues)
Alternate: upon engagement, autopilot will disengage the FCC (more reliable, but can create
problems for some users)
EDIT: I think this must be an airspeed thing. I just reduced airspeed to 450 kts and NAV modes suddenly seem to be behaving as expected.
I switched the autopilot to “alternate” logic, whatever it means technically, because it made the AP more predictable for me (I’m on Xbox). The RTE Hold function works with the default (green) CDI if I create the flight plan on the World Map. It is also advised this way in the manual. At first I couldn’t get the AP to engage RTE Hold in a predictable manner, but changing it to alternate logic seem to have solved this issue. Now the autopilot follows the route without problems.
I never use HDG Hold so I can’t comment on that.
AT is basically SPD Hold. If you engage it, the plane will automatically take over throttle control, at least it does for me. I think it’s important not to preselect any mode before taking off, because they might not engage together with the AP. What I usually do is just fill in the desired values (altitude and speed), take off, engage the AP at a comfortable altitude and then engage SPD Hold and RTE Hold. It also helps if I’m relatively close to my planned route because the RTE Hold may not engage from more than a certain distance. I’m not sure about that.
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Thank you. I will give the ‘alternate’ logic a try. For me speed seemed to make a huge difference. so 550kts and no NAV modes seemed to work, but down at 450kts and it worked well.
I’ll try to focus on the engagement order too.
I admit I never go that fast, only if I’m handflying randomly and doing crazy stunts, low level flight etc. Otherwise if I have a “proper plan” then I use much slower speeds and try travelling as fuel-efficient as possible. Maybe the autopilot is also wired in a similar way, not responding above “reasonable” speeds.
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Would love to hear more about the changes though, because a jet with FBW and AP shouldn’t be hand flown all the time.
Hello,
I’m not able to activate APP HOLD during landing approach with ILS system.
Gear is down, ILS frequency is set, ILS activated on FCS. Everything is working, with the exception of APP Hold, I can’t activate it. Any help?
I’m curious why do you guys even need AP in a FBW aircraft? It’s really stable and flies like a dream with very minor corrections needed.
Well that depends on what I’m doing. It does fly by hand really well and for low level stuff, yes no AP required. I did a carrier to carrier IFR flight (300 ish miles) this morning and used RTE hold. Now I could have done that by hand, but with a stiff crosswind and me wanting to play aound with the avioncs displays, navigation system and other settings enroute, AP was the ony real option. I don’t use AP for landings. Loving the F35 though. I’m not usually into fighter jets but this aircraft is a lot of fun with 3 variants and VTOL and carrier capability.
It’s become among my all time favourites. VTOL to fly low and slow to admire the photogrammetry is something I thought I’d never experience on a console 
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While I agree it’s extremely easy to hand-fly, so straightforward that it feels almost arcade-y, autopilot does come in handy, especially in the case of longer flights. It can hold the route properly in crosswind, doesn’t need regular intervention, more importantly it keeps the speed which can be more challenging depending on what peripheral one uses. And when you just want to hop out into Showcase camera for photos, it comes in handy to keep the plane level even if you play around with the camera long.
Quick question, with the update how do you engage afterburner?
Hello,
There are a lot of features and criteria for the ILS to properly work in this aircraft. I started to write a few things but I realized the manual has way more information on this. So look at it and search for “ILS” and you’ll find all kinds of useful info about the system.
F-35 MANUAL (PDF)
Once you reach full mil power, release the throttle up button and press again.
Or, you could bind a key that helps you engage AB after reaching full mil power. You can find it in the key binding options.
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It worked before.
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Nobody would fly a real F-35 by hand for long distances.
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A computer is already flying the F-35 in FBW, so it isn’t like hand flying connects you more to the machine.
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IFR.
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There are other military planes without an AP. Mostly from the WWII era and before. No need to make the F-35 run like its 80 year old+ grandparents.
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Random speculation on my part but I would also surmise that when running a hostile airspace penetration profile, the F-35 is primarily flown on AP so as to keep the flight path precise (the path of least threat detection as displayed) and to limit control movements that could compromise the stealth capability. Not to mention the pilot having a whole lot of other stuff to do with managing the information influx and targeting decisions and comms that are made as a result. Of course, I don’t have a clue so I could be way off.
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The AP is primarily for pilot relief. The aircraft has Air to Air Refueling (AAR) capability for a reason, it has a short range when using high power settings and there is a requirement to patrol (CAP) airspace for long periods that can be up to 8 hours or more, that’s a long time in the seat while looking for threats, monitoring airspace and carrying out multiple AAR. There are also requirements for the aircraft to do long range transits to areas of conflict for example Australia to the Middle East Area Of Operations or long range transit in general, and hand flying constantly is physically and mentally fatiguing. You have to keep in mind that military pilots don’t just jump in a jet and take off and come back and land, there is a planning and briefing phase and then there is a debriefing phase which all adds to time on duty. It also takes time to go through the aircraft documentation to ensure that the aircraft has been configured in the state that it has been requested to be in and to see if the aircraft has any deferred defects (minor unserviceabilities that will be fixed at a later date for various reasons) that the pilot needs to keep in mind when flying the aircraft, which all adds to the pilots stress levels. The easier an aircraft is to fly, the better for the pilot.
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Thank you, sorted