Hello, I am a flightsimmer since the Commodore 64 and have flown all versions of FS. I am an “A320” guy, in the sense that that is what I like to fly most.
Now, the BIG issue: since the beginning (August 2020) I cannot use (I mean I cannot activate) the autopilot on most aircraft. I do mean the autopilot button in the cockpit (not the A.I. copilot).
The only aircraft where I can activate/disactvate the AP are the 747, 787 and TBM, which happen to be the only three models that have a separate AP disconnect switch.
I already disinstalled and reinstalled the whole beast without any result.
So, again (you don’t even need a screenshot) nothing happens when I click on the AP button (except that I do hear the click).
The VICIOUS thing, though (at least concerning the A320) is that the AP DOES WORK in the landing challenges as well as if I put the aircraft in “final” (this is when you indicate only the arrival airport and not the departure one). Moreover, to make the thing even more cruel, the AP does function normally every now and then (say once every 10 flights). Therefore, nine times out of ten I am flying an A320 on a commercial flight fully by hand! All the other switches work, including A/T, FMC, MCDU, lights etc
At each update I hoped my big problem would be solved but this is not the case.
I have a quite high end desktop purpose-built for FS2020:
AMD Ryzen 7
DDR4 Corsair 32GB
HD SSD Crucial P1 1TB
(temporary, but still good GPU) Radeon RX570, waiting for the latest NVidia.
It would be weird if my PC config would affect the AP (and ONLY the autopilot, right)?
I am also concerned because I seem to be the only one with this specific “no AP” problem.
Anybody who could solve this problem, be prepared for my eternal gratitude!
Dear TomZ85
Thank you for your interest. My controller (indeed I did not mention it) is a Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback 2. Yes it is very old but gives me full satisfaction (obviously without Force Feedback).
I do not use it to activate the AP. I click on the AP button in the cockpit with the mouse. I also assigned a keybord key to AP activation and deactivation but none of these systems works.
If you insist I will produce a video but be assured there is nothing special to show there. Simply, after takeoff, with everything else working fine (autotrhottle, etc.) I click with my mouse on the AP button but nothing happens (it does not light up). Same if I try with the assigned (F11) key.
TomZ85 raised my attention on the controller. Going to the settings I discovered that button 7 of my controller (MS SideWinder FF2) was not only assigned to the parking brakes but also (probably by default, certainly not set by me), to… autopilot ON/OFF! Therefore, when releasing the parking brakes before the takeoff run, I was at the same time disabling in a “deep way” the autopilot! And the successive clicking on the AP button was… “disabled” because of this.
And this also explains why the AP was working normally in the landing challenges and in “approach only” mode: there I had not set/released parking brakes (as in those situations the aircraft is already in flight). This also explains why the problem was not shared by any significant number of simmers.
So, more than four months of suffering (ask my wife!) end here!
Thank you a lot for the inspiration, the moral support and, Happy New Year!
Greetings from Brussels, Belgium