I have tried three times to activate the autopilot (TBM and G36) and leave my PC for a while, and all three have ended in “tears”. Screensaver comes on and I find my plane belly up on the ground. First off. Why does the screensaver come on when the sim is in focus, and second, can I not leave my PC while flying for extended periods between waypoints.
Yesterday I had 45 minutes to the next waypoint and I had to walk our dog. I don’t have time in the day to do both so I thought the autopilot on ALT and NAV mode could handle a straight shot at 4000 ft. But no.
I would agree. No external factors, save the computer actually going to sleep, should affect the autopilot. It’s far more likely that something is wrong with the autopilot, or what it is being commanded to do is the issue. Like holding an altitude, and flying straight into terrain or structure.
Since you said the plane to be belly up on the ground, that sounds to me like stalling. Neither those APs control airspeed, so are you sure you have sufficient throttle (and not too much on the TBM), enough fuel, or selected feeding from both tanks? And have you already arrived at your final waypoint so the AP disconnects?
I don’t want to pause the flight. I want to leave it flying while I walk the dog so I can finish jobs in OnAir. If I’m not using OnAir, sure. Taking off and landing is most of the fun. The flight in between, not so much. But I don’t have enough time in a day to sit there and wait just looking “out the windows”…
Don’t use Active Pause, it will mess up your throttle settings on unpause, as well as act like it accumulated all the energy and height changes that affected the aircraft while paused and jar it badly.
Use Set Pause On and Set Pause Off - requires two separate keys or control buttons but well worth it.
It’s paused in position. But it’s also subject to changes over time - the oddball throttle settings are just one of them. Hit ESC while flying for a while, walk away for a bit, come back. Your throttle will not be where you left it. Set Pause ON, it will be.
I leave frequently during long flights with a dog, 2 year old and partner at home (add on top of that work obligations).
Took me a bit and of course plane dependent, but things to watch out for:
Check your power saving mode. At least in windows 11 there are two settings - screen saver (which doesn’t put computer in sleep mode) and the power savings “sleep mode”. Make sure the latter is turned off.
Speed is usually what kills me if my plane doesn’t have a managed speed mode. Either have to get the speed right so you won’t have any inadvertent over-speed or stall issues, or only fly managed speed and/or auto throttle planes.
Be back at your computer before approach mode kicks in if your avionics auto detects LOC.
Plane dependent, but could turn down turbulence settings, which in very rare occasions can trip up an AP in certain planes.
Make sure no hard turns upcoming as they can trip up your AP. I always check the route and do a back of the envelope calculation on how long you can be away before the route gets sketchy.
“In November 2000, Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand-new 32-foot Winnebago motorhome. On his first trip home, having joined the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go into the back to make a cup of coffee."
Sorry, that wasn’t helpful.
Question: Does ‘Set Pause ON’ pause the realtime clock? How would that affect an OnAir flight?
