I load a flight plan, execute takeoff, climb to the approximate altitude and navigate to the approximate heading. When I select AP, then NAV, the PFD displays AP and ROL (Roll Hold?). I expect to see the display showing GPS and AP. Not sure what’s up, but if I hold heading and altitude for a few miles it seems to accept AP and NAV. Is it because I’m in the TERM area?
You need to fly a heading to intercept your course.
Best procedure is to intercept it at about a 30 degree angle.
The AP is showing ROL - roll mode because the AP has no lateral guidance at this point. It’s not on the course that is in the GPS, so NAV isn’t working. and its not in heading mode.
Put the AP in HDG and dial in a heading to intercept your course.
Engage NAV when you are almost on the course.
Why does it intercept the GPS course later?
Probably because the existing heading track gets close enough to the GPS course that the NAV mode can engage.
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Thanks, 7! Kinda thought that was what was goin’ on. I’ll try the 30 degree approach angle to the course, fly HDG then switch to NAV and see if it grabs. Why it wants to go to Roll Hold when I’m leaving an airport on the flight plan course is strange to me, but, as I said, if I fly the flight plan course for a few miles and at the proper altitude, It’ll go to NAV. Not a big deal, I can hand fly, but I seem to remember past flights where the aircraft would latch onto the FP course almost immediately. Thanks for the quick response, safe flight!
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You can also just leave NAV mode armed and it will automatically switch out of HDG and into NAV when it gets close enough.
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Thanks! I’ll try that too!
Generally speaking when flying with a NXi equipped aircraft before takeoff I will set the desired altitude, and the desired heading to intercept the GPS course (unless I have to turn more than 180 degrees, then ill set it as close as I can and adjust it as the plane is making the turn), and also press the TOGA button to get the FD to pitch up.
After takeoff and cleaning up the aircraft Ill put on the AP and it will go into ROL and PIT mode. ROL will be following the current heading and PIT will follow the pitch set by the TOGA button.
Then I put the aircraft in either VS or IAS mode to climb.
Then I put the aircraft into HDG mode to make the turn to intercept course. After that I will press the NAV button and GPS will appear in white until its close enough to the magenta line and GPS will turn green and HDG will go out.
Just be aware that if you are at minimum maneuvering speed and/or high angle of attack (i.e., climb to cruise), and you are also intercepting the GPS path at 30 degrees or more, chances are the AP will oscillate back and forth along the path unless you increase speed or lower the nose.
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Couple of things about this. ROL does not follow heading as you stated. To keep things simple you can pre select HDG and FLC before take-off and then engage the AP when you are ready during the climb.
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True. ROL keeps the wings level. This has usually worked well enough for me to get to the required altitude before making my turn to intercept.
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The following is from most recent Change Log. The 2nd paragraph mentions the modes that now “Arm”. Other good info there as well such as the Suspend function. This is just one section, link included to the rest of the Change Log at the Working Title site:
Heads Up!
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VNAV now deactivates upon reaching the last constraint (cyan altitude in FPL) prior to a VNAV ineligible leg, such as a MANSEQ, Procedure Turn or Hold. Be aware that if you have a MANSEQ leg at the end of your arrival procedure, without manual intervention, you can (and likely will) end up too high to reasonable descend for the approach. You have three options to navigate this: (1) Manually descend as is reasonable at your discretion; (2) delete the MANSEQ leg to allow VNAV to recalculate by directly connecting the end of the arrival with the beginning of the approach or (3) activate the approach (or proceed direct to the IAF) and VNAV will attempt to calculate a path up to 6 degrees from your current position to the next constraint.
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GPS, LOC, and VOR modes now ARM! Be aware that you will need to be on an intercept course and within capture distance of the desired flight path before those modes will become active.
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The GPS flight plan sequencing will enter SUSP under the following conditions: when reaching a manual termination leg (holds, manual sequence) and when reaching the final leg of the plan. This is actually correct behavior. To exit out of SUSP (for example, if you got to the end of a plan and then loaded more waypoints), hit the SUSP softkey in the middle of the PFD.
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Changing the CDI source drops the autopilot into ROL mode. This is the correct behavior, intended to keep the airplane held in the same attitude until the pilot reselects appropriate guidance.
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The NXi’s traffic advisory system (TAS) will now start in STANDBY mode by default. While in this mode it will not issue any advisories nor will traffic be displayed on any maps. The system will automatically switch from STANDBY to OPERATING mode after takeoff (and back to STANDBY after landing). You can also manually switch TAS to OPERATING mode through the MFD Traffic Map page (use the MFD FMS knobs to change the open MFD page).
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The fuel quantity information on the MFD’s sytem page simulates an authentic totalizer. This means it does not actually track the fuel in your tanks, it simply counts how much has been burned and relies on you to tell it what the original quantity was. This means if you add or remove fuel in flight you’ll need to manually adjust the starting quantity in the tanks with the buttons on the GAL REM submenu.
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The displayed METAR information on the MFD FPL page reflects real-world weather from the sim live weather METARs, so they may not always match in-game conditions, especially if using a weather preset or custom weather.
https://www.workingtitle.aero/packages/nxi/2021/12/10/nxi-release-v0.10.1.html
You are not close enough to the GPS flight path, and GPS nav is only armed and not active (you will see GPS in white and not green).
To get GPS nav to go from armed to active, you will need to be on an intercept course to the path and at 2 dots on the CDI or less of cross-track deviation. This is accurate to the real G1000. Once it is active, you will see GPS in white disappear and your currently active lateral mode will be replaced by GPS in green. You will also see the active lateral mode flash to alert you to the mode activation.
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Exactly what I do. Stay ahead of your flight and set things like this before takeoff. That way it’s a 1 button press to get everything going once you’re in the air.
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