Hi there - I’m a newcomer to MSFS, am hoping that someone can help me understand why I cannot activate AP in my C172 in free flight mode (and seeing a similar effect in Career mode).
The AP button is simpy not responsive, when clicked on with the mouse. I can see that the AP button is also mapped to T.16000 button 14, which similarly does nothing. I’ve tried disconnecting the T.16000 (and throttle), in case there was a clash of inputs, but with no difference.
I’ve loaded a flightplan route into the nav, which is seen in the flight display on the right, the CDI is correctly set to GPS, but the AP button cannot be pressed.
Is this a bug, or am I doing something incorrect?
Just yesterday I did the career mode certification for the Jet aircraft, which requires AP but I had exactly the same problem, and had to manually fly the circuit.
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I’ve looked at a bunch of stuff, and you’ve sort of “stumped the band” (ok, you have to be old to know where that comes from!).
The first thing I’d look at is open your settings/controls then go into your first device and look for " autopilot off". If there’s nothing list for it on the first device, click the next device and see if anything shows up there for the same command, and do that for each of your peripherals. It just looks to me like there’s something that’s sending a constant signal for your autopilot to be “off”.
I ran through multiple scenarios right now with that plane, and not seeing anything that should not allow you to activate the AP button without some kind of conflict.
By the way, if you do find one device that’s sending a constant “off” signal, see if there are any “conflicts” shown with that setting and clear any other settings that are also tied to the AP off command.
If you don’t find anything in the settings, let us know and we’ll keep working it. But the 172 AP should be activating almost regardless of what modes you enter (NAV, HDG, etc), but the indicators showing what mode the AP is in may be different colors, and you can have two modes set…one “armed” and one active mode. (we can talk about that if you’re unsure once we get the AP to engage!!).
But for right now, check for conflicts in your settings rather than just unplugging your devices.
Regards
You describe yourself as a newcomer to MFS, so just to check back on the basics first: have you set a route or heading, selected a mode (NAV or HDG) and set a desired altitude and VS rate, before you press the button to activate the AP?
If these aren’t set up in advance, just pressing AP once you’re in the air is unlikely to result in the aircraft following the current heading and altitude.
Thanks for the reply, to clarify - my question isn’t about actually having the aircraft follow a set route - it’s simply about toggling the button on/off, which isn’t working at all (before and after I’ve pressed the NAV/HDG buttons)- you should be able to see this effect in the capture that I posted.
I’ve just figured out how to embed as a YT vid, so here it is again… you can see me clicking the AP button, and it not toggling from OFF to ON.
I’ve looked at a bunch of stuff, and you’ve sort of “stumped the band” (ok, you have to be old to know where that comes from!).
I am indeed old, but after some research on that phrase, I fear that I’m on the wrong side of the Atlantic to have known it
Thanks for the helpful reply - really appreciated.
The first thing I’d look at is open your settings/controls then go into your first device and look for " autopilot off". If there’s nothing list for it on the first device, click the next device and see if anything shows up there for the same command, and do that for each of your peripherals.
Yes, already did that yesterday - specifically, I was looking for “AUTOPILOT MASTER”, and it was only mapped to button 12 on the T.16000 (but then, the effect was still present when the T.16000 was disconnected, so this couldn’t have been the cause).
I’ve done a bunch of reading and watched a few YouTubes about the G1000 AP, so I’m broadly aware of how it should work, and I have had the HDG mode work in the past (probably a couple of months ago), so the AP button was def working at some point in the past for me.
Also the fact that I’m seeing this on multiple aircraft (C172 and Cirrus Jet), does feel like it might be a input/control thing.
I’ll have another rummage through the settings this evening. I’d rather avoid a re-install, but that might also be an option if I have no further routes of investigation.
Unfortunately, “autopilot master” won’t pick up the “autopilot off” command in the options. So might retry with that and see if anything has a conflict.
The HDG mode is by far the most reliable mode, so the fact that it’s not even trying to engage when you selected that one really looks like there’s a conflict with something specifically turning the AP off constantly. I had a similar issue once where I had set my flaps on my throttle box, and later decided to move it to a joystick button. Somewhere along the line, I must have moved the old switch on my throttle, and left it “down”, so every time I’d try to raise the flaps using my throttle button, they wouldn’t move. Took a while to figure that one out…
P.S. Extra Credit: Stump the band was a thing Johnny Carson did on the original “Late Show” in the U.S. back in the 60’s/70’s. He’d ask an audience member to name a “real” song and see if his band knew it or if they had stumped the band! Usually, if the band didn’t know it, they’d play some farcical tune they just jammed out, and Johnny would give the audience member some gift! Hey, it was late, we were college students, and we didn’t want to read our books! LOL
However - I unmapped all autopilot related controls from my stick (there wasn’t anything that looked like it was clashing or suspicious), however - it appears to be working correctly on a quick check.
I’ll have a closer look in due course, but is looking promising.
Turns out that it isn’t fixed. It seems intermittent - I flew one flight in career mode, then it stopped working again. Restarting the flight caused it to work again.
So - it now doesn’t appear to be a control related issue, and most likely a bug…
I guess a conflict would have been too easy! Oh well. What’s strange is I’m not seeing other folks with this issue, so it’s not widespread.
The next most likely problem is that there’s an issue with an add-on plane/scenery etc or an issue with a separate program you’re running at the same time as MSFS2024.
I’ll keep looking around, and as my wife says, I have a hard time letting go of issues until I find the problem!
Regards
