So frustrating. A year into this and something really basic (from a flight sim standpoint) like having the plane follow its flight path via AP and… it’s broken again.
Here’s the deal…
Start with TBM and World Map
Depart from anywhere but start cold
Set your departure (cold) and destination using basic VFR (follows the magenta line)
Take off, engage AP and you’ll fly straight in whatever direction your plane was pointed when you engaged AP. Plane won’t follow its flight path.
Everything works fine when starting from the runway but starting cold = No AP
That said, did you ensure the correct AP mode is selected?
This may differ between Cold&Dark vs. starting set-up on the runway.
As I am not aware of other users experiencing this issue,
my first suspect would unfortunately be pilot error, as I do not know how much knowledge you posses in using these complex avionic systems.
Screenshots of your instruments or a video would help to rule this possiblility out and may help in troubleshooting.
As far as I know my guess would be that the FMS mode has not been engaged correctly. Ensure that “FMS” is displayed in magenta in the lower part of the PFD as nav source and that the AP mode is set to nav, which should be verifiable by checking that in the upper left of the PFD, “FMS” is displayed in green.
See MSFS: Daher TBM 930 Autopilot Basics - Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 - YouTube for reference and maybe you see discrepencies between your instruments and those in the video.
Please also ensure that the in-game content manager does not show any updates.
And last, please ensure that no mods are installed to ensure that this is a core sim bug and not a 3rd party bug.
As I believe this topic is addressing the same issue as your other topic here, I have closed the older one.
To follow-up on @N347DT comment, check your PFD. If the “AP” light isn’t green in the area at the top of the PFD, your AP isn’t on, and it’s probably the issue mentioned!
As @ITDreamFly mentioned, make sure you’ve got some AP mode (Nav/Heading) turned on (if your AP is actually turned on per previous comments), or the AP will go into default mode, which is “Pitch/Roll”. If that’s what’s happening, you’ll see “PIT” and “ROLL” in green in the area at the top of the PFD (along with a green “AP”). If the green indicator is not “NAV”, then the AP will just go in the direction you’re pointing if it’s in default PIT/ROLL mode, or turn slowly if the plane wasn’t in straight flight when activated in default mode) or if it says heading, then the AP will go where ever the heading bug is set.
Hope the comments from the others here help you get the AP working for you. I know it works fine for me in that aircraft (without mods). If you’re using a mod, you might see if there’s an update for it you’re missing.
Regards
Well first, thank you for the replies. However, I didn’t include basic info that really doesn’t seem make this a pilot error situation…
A defined set of steps using nothing more than the World Map and on-screen checklists used to work for me prior to the last update/hotfixes. I’ve flown GPS/ILS lots of times from cold start prior to the last update/hotfixes.
I have no mods
Here’s what used to work but is now no longer working…
World Map: Select destination airport parking spot (#8 Orcas Island for example)
World Map: Select arrival airport (Skagit Regional for example)
Click “Fly”
Auto-complete each checklist up to take off
Turn NAV mode On
Dial altitude (say 3000 ft)
Turn VS On
Dial up climb rate (say 2000 ft/min)
Take off
Engage AP
Plane travels in a straight line ignoring AP/magenta line
The only thing that’s changed for me is the last update/hotfixes. I can do this over and over at any airport with the same results. Again, the same set of steps that successfully worked prior to the last update/hotfixes now does not work.
Verify AP/trim upper right switch is UP
Verify FMS is selected as navigation system on PFD
Verify in left GTC Flight Plan is dispalyed and correct with way points…
Verify AP/trim upper right switch is UP
Verify FMS is selected as navigation system on PFD
Verify in left GTC Flight Plan is dispalyed and correct with way points…
That’s what the checklist is for. Following that checklist used to work although I do recall at one point that auto-completing the checklist didn’t arm the AP/Trim (switch up) but that got fixed. Anyway, prior to this last update/hotfix, I could cold start using the checklist and AP worked fine. Many many many many many many times. Now, using those EXACT same steps, the AP no longer works.
I suppose my post is more of a frustrated complaint in the same mode of “It’s been a year, shouldn’t ATC do better than ‘Please expidite your climb…’ when you’re at the assigned altitude?”. Yes I can climb to 300 feet above my assigned altitude to fake out the ATC but after a year in, that’s pretty basic and shouldn’t be happening. Same with following their checklist. If after auto-completing the checklist I have to manually find what the checklist is now missing (that it wasn’t missing before), well, that’s not good at any level.
I will do some digging and follow the suggested items above that might help me work around this.
Anyway, I’ll Zendesk this as I’m unmodded and can reproduce this over and over. My steps above are simply following what the game gives me and what has worked many many many many many many many times in the past prior to the last update/hotfix.
I think there may be a misunderstanding what checklists are for.
As reference here is a checklist I found online: https://simmerdream.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Checklist-TBM930.pdf .
My understanding is, that the checklists in MSFS try to simulate the procedures of these checklists. Thus their purpose would be to:
Although helpful, their primary purpose is not to provide a tutorial of how to operate the aircraft. So e.g. the checklist above only states,
Autopilot …………………………………………. CHECK
, but it does not provide the information how to check the autopilot or operate it.
So even if just following the MSFS checklists worked out fine before, does not mean that the aircraft acting differently is a bug, since simply a default Cold&Start setting may have changed, which is not explicitly listed in the checklist.
If you follow the comments above and potentially even provide screenshots of the aircraft, it should be confirmable, if you found a bug or not.
Glad you are willing to try them. If there is a part of an MSFS checklist that does not work as intended, e.g. using the auto complete checklist function, this will be much easier to report.
Personally, I can understand that it is frustrating that something unknowingly changed between updates, leading to an issue, but I would also not spend time on fileing a bug report until I am sure it is a bug, since Zendesk will probably take a while to respond and may inquire further, before they potentially consider it a bug .
I think what I’ll do is to follow my own steps above, then follow the suggestion of seeing what the PFD says. I’m guessing that for some reason, the PFD is going to be missing something that should be there (has been there before) but now is not.
I’ll post whatever I find. I’m not a pilot so I might need some “interpretation” on my results.
And if anyone has any time for this…
If you follow my set of steps on your unmoddded TBM, what happens?
Could you post a screenshot of the right side of your overhead panel and a screenshot of the PFD (main screen) when that error occurs. A few pics say more than a thousand words and it would be much easier to help you. It definitely also works for me.
I have the “why”… sort of. The first two screenshots are of the PFD and display when departing from an airport (Orcas Island in this case). The next two screenshots are of the PFD and display when departing from a parking spot (#8 Orcas Island in this case). Aha! It says NAV1 and not GPS.
So… I can obviously and easily work around this by selecting GPS in the PFD and then setting up my AP stuff (tried it… it worked). As to why it appears that GPS is selected for everyone else and not me now, well that’s a mystery.
In wrapping this up, thanks to all for your help. The issue is resolved in that I can now work around it easily. Maybe in the next update it’ll slap my system back to normal and it’ll work without the workaround!
Did you press YD and AP on the upper part of your “dashboard”. If that doesnt work your AP is propably not switched on, therefore I wanted to see a screenshot of your right overhead panel. Also switch on FD (Flightdirector).
Edited: Sorry, just saw you are still on the ground (in the first pic). Was a bit too fast.
Edit: Sorry, just saw you are still on the ground.
The only “extra” thing I have to do now (that I didn’t have to do before) if I’m to start cold and following the auto-complete checklist, is to change my PFD from NAV1 to GPS. I just tried it out and follows the little magenta line like anyone would expect.
Now as to why this “extra” has started occurring to me since the last update, who knows? But thanks again to you and all because with an easy workaround, I can now fly again from a cold start!
@ImpulseCello286 Wondeful.
I am not an expert, but for ILS approaches you may have to tune in the NAV frequency and set the source back to NAV1 but that is another story.
As the solution was found, I will close the topic and mark your post as solution.
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