I’m not modder, but this is what is working for me. Generally:
in engines.cfg:
- you have to check, if DisableAutopilotControls is 0
in systems.cfg
- you have to check, if you have AP system bound to some electronic circuit. So for this plane, I added line:
circuit.36 = Type:CIRCUIT_AUTOPILOT #Connections:bus.2 #Power:2,2,10.5 #Name:Autopilot
into [ELECTRICAL] section. Some planes without any AP functionality have this already there. Look for “Type:CIRCUIT_AUTOPILOT”. Note that this circuit has to be powered during the flight. I usually connect it to same bus as Avionics system. Then ingame, I turn on avionics systems by my Honeycomb switches, if aircraft is missing avionics switch. Not sure if all defined buses are automatically powered after turning battery on. If AP is not working for you, this is the section you have to play around. But for the aircraft I added AP, no such problem happened.
2. Then you go to [AUTOPILOT] section. Many planes have this section filled (probably some default values). For this particular plane, I deleted whole section and put “my” default one, which suits me well:
[AUTOPILOT]
autopilot_available = 1
flight_director_available = 0
default_vertical_speed = 700
autothrottle_available = 0
max_pitch = 25
max_bank = 35
default_pitch_mode = 2
default_bank_mode = 1
use_no_default_bank = 0
use_no_default_pitch = 0
alt_mode_slot_index = 0
You can find info about the parameters in SDK documentation. This AP should follow wing level (not roll) and altitude hold by default after engaging AP Master. AP modes can be of course changed during flight. Altitude change just via increasing/decreasing altitude should immediatelly start climb/descent (alt_mode_slot_index) via default_vertical_speed (note that max vertical speed seems to be 3000, I tried more for fast jets but it ingame it stops at 3000 ft/m). Another note you don’t need any GPS to follow “magenta” line. You just create flight plan in MSFS World screen (or load from f.e. LittleNavMap) and ingame turn on NAV mode (some aircraft default source is NAV (VOR) however, that needs to be changed to GPS via keybind or directly in Companion). flight_director_available has to be set to 1 for this to work. Via Companion you can do even ILS landing even there are no Radio stations (to dial in ILS freq) in aircraft. Really handy tool.
Thats usually all. Usually works good (at least for basic HDG/ALT hold modes). Good thing is check via Companion what exactly is AP trying to do, you can see there HDG and Altitude values which AP is trying to follow, also vertical speed.
For this particular plane, altimeter has to be set correctly before engaging AP, otherwise it will dive to the ground (in Companion, I saw negative altitude when it was behaving like this. Setting correct pressure in altimeter fixed that).
Hope that helps.