P28R Arrow III by Carenado: Autopilot not working in NAV mode

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Hello,

I just purchased your PA28R Arrow III by Carenado and I am very excited about this particular flight model, which I think is very well built by the Carenado team.

The plane feels great and works very realistically. However, I have encountered an issue when following a flight plan in the Garmin GNS 430 and using the autopilot. Whenever I try to set the autopilot to NAV, it says “FAIL” and isn’t capable of following the flight plan I have configured. You can have a look in the screenshot below.

I use the GNS 530/430 mod by pimarc (see GitHub). Is this mod in some way interfering with how the AP works in the Arrow?

Have I missed something with respect to configuring the AP to follow the FP? Or is there a bug that prevents me from making use of the NAV mode?

Has anybody else experienced this issue?

Looking forward to hearing from you guys!

Best,
Sebastian

carenado-430
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You are in VLOC mode. Switch your CDI source.

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Embarrassing, haha! You’re right!

I guess I’m used to it being on GPS by default. Thanks for catching it!

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No worries! Happens…

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More than I care to admit.

Child of the magenta line that for some reason is over there! :slight_smile:

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I myself have just purchased the PA28 Arrow, and like the opening post, I cannot use the auto-pilot.

Yes, I have checked and made sure that it is set to GPS :slight_smile:

It does not hold my altitude, the AC will go up and down like crazy. This afternoon I nose dived into the East River.

It will not follow the route, I have tried using NAV 1, GPS is set, tried it without as well.

Thanks!

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No picture or any additional information? Kind of hard to diagnose but I’ll try the Ouija board this evening…

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You are correct. I apologize for wasting your time. I honestly thought I had included all relevant information, obviously I had not.

I take off, go to my altitude, I click on the ALT button. The AC does not hold at the altitude that I have selected, it go up about 1,000 feet, then down 2,000 then back up, repeating this motion.

I have a flight plan loaded, it shows up on the VFR map, GPS is set, the AC does not follow it.

I was able to fly to my destination airport, and landed via ILS (after I had swtiched the CDI)

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First of all, is your FD enabled? Second, for navigation, is it displaying GPS or VLOC for CDI? And are you enabling the NAV mode? Screenshots would certainly help. It’s easier to troubleshoot it from those.

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Hi Jeremy, I will post the screenshots in a bit.

I’ve looked for the FD button and cannot locate it. I have a feeling this could be the problems, but I do not know where it is located on this AC

The documentation for this AC is lacking. I did find it with the G172 G1000 so I am familiar with it

For navigation it is in GPS mode

Yes, I am enabling NAV mode

Screenshots will be coming :slight_smile:
Thanks!

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I haven’t flown that one for a while (mostly fly the JustFlight one), but I will take a look later today and try to help you out. Nothing looks out of ordinary in your screenshot right now. I will try to help you. One thing is you are at 200 feet and have AP enabled? Way too low.

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Thanks Jeremy

I was “attempting” to level out around 1000 feet, but the controls are very sensitive. I’ve tried using the altitude button, did not hold me at 1000, kept going up and down.

So, I just paused the sim, and took the screenshots

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Can’t you adjust the yoke sensitivity settings?

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I have adjusted it. No help :frowning:

I am convinced that the altitude hold does not work (hope I am wrong)

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No effect at all? What if you reduce sensitivity to zero? Does it do anything?

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I will give that a try. I have the sim up.

I have them set at -20 atm.

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I know it works because I have used it MANY times. But I am in the middle of a long-haul flight right now, so I will have to wait to help.

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I’m confused as to why you would say it is “no help” if you haven’t tried reducing the sensitivity more. That doesn’t make any sense to me.

Combined with @BostonJeremy77 's comment, I’m questioning the accuracy of what you are reporting.

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Folks, thank you for your help. I am doing my best to provide accurate information, but I am failing.

Thus, I am dropping this. I cannot get it work, thus I must lack the knowledge to fly this sim.

@mdapol my apoligies for confusing you. I really am trying my best. All I wanted was to fly this AC that I bought, it appears I cannot.

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There is no need to quit. You just need to learn how to fly the plane. We’re happy to help you. Planes are not easy to fly and take some time to figure out all the controls and behaviors. Just be patient and work with us to help you.

1 Like