Gazelle ...what is needed to get the auto hover kicking in!?

AUTO-HOVER STRUGGLES RESOLVED

After numerous attempts and utterances not normally acceptable in front of my mother I figured out why auto-hover sometimes work and sometimes not:

(Basically a summary of above inputs and some fault-finding on my part)

{If this had been mentioned in detail earlier I apologise for stealing someone's thunder}

Fault finding when Auto-hover fails to engage when within the required flight parameters (< 18km/h, roll& pitch <30°, VSI <60):

1. Autopilot Master switch [Autopilot Master] on the cyclic may have accidentally been pressed which disables the system.

 To check if it is on or off, look at the autopilot roll, pitch and yaw indicators at the bottom right of the panel.  The needles should be pointing around the centre positions and not off to one side like no power is applied (see pic below).  In addition, the 4 Autopilot switches have to be "up" as shown below [Master On/Off] [Pitch On/Off] [Roll On/Off] [Yaw On/Off].

2. Gyro has to be in the GM position (situated to the right of the TV sight and left of the lighting panel).  I had a binding on my controls for the [Gyro Knob +] switch and sometimes in haste pressed it twice which takes it out of the GM setting.  So see if it is set correctly the two windows under GYRO and AMPLI must read "ON" and not cross-hatched as shown below:

Correct indication in GM                           Gyro OFF - cross-hatched

Simply select GM and wait ±60s (60s is a very long time when under fire so it is useful to add these two checks to your FENCE IN checks before attempting to engaging the enemy.

Once these two situations are in place the auto-hover [Auto-Hover Toggle] should work like a charm if within the flight parameters and you will, like me, realise you were not actually that bad at hovering

Hope this helps.

 Joystick extension... allows very small movements, hence accuracy?

What kind, I am wondering ,as my Logitech is all over the place , no chance of centering it enough to Hover ... Just imagine trying to use your joystick device while balancing yourself on top of a soccer ball. That about sums up the experience I am having getting it to auto hover so I can switch over to Copilot position and shoot at anything.