Autopilot help & other questions.

So I'm new to flying choppers and since I have managed to get to the point where I can fly in a straight line and not just spin around and around (something pretty vomit inducing in VR) I have been trying to work out the autopilot.

Apart from the conditions needed to get the auto hover to kick in being really sensitive and something that I can only get in a hit or miss fashion there doesn’t seem to be any indicator to tell me that the autopilot is functioning.

I get the gyro up, switch on the master On/Off (panel) and the r/p/y stabilisers then set it to Altitude mode then get above 120kts.

I was then expecting that when I hit the Pilot Stick Autopilot Master I could let go of the stick and just use the collective and rudder. More power and the autopilot should pitch down maintaining alt and increasing speed with the opposite for less power but this doesn’t seem to be the case. With more power the SC342 gains Alt. the lack of an indicator to tell me the AP is on is really frustrating.

I’m I doing something wrong or misunderstanding how the AP is supposed to react to changes in the collective?

I can't really help because I have not messed with the AP much myself, but I noted one thing you didn't mention: trim

Have you flipped the trim switch and do you trim while flying?

Hmm, haven't worked out the trim yet but you hit the nail on the head as this was my other question mentioned in the subject.

I have set the pitch/roll trim to a stick hat in the same way I do for a fixed wing but it doesn't appear to do anything even after flipping the console switch.

I've noticed that there is a stick button mapping for a Trim button as well as the console switch. Do you have to hold down the stick trim button before the hat switch will respond to changes?

I also flip on both the Trim and the Mag Brake switches in the console during startup. Not sure if I'm supposed to do this as I don't have a force feedback stick so was expecting not to bother using the Mag Brake.

Honestly have no idea. I still only fly casually with my C-n'-C. Never bothered with trim or AP so far. Hope someone who knows will help.

Apologies but I've posted this in the wrong forum. If the mods can move this to the Gazelle forum I'd appreciate it.

Sounds like you're very close, almost got it.

- Full startup, including nav align.

- Trim switch on

- Trim axes on: R/P/Y (up)

- Pilot Assist (left of axes) on

Flying straight and level at >120 kph, engage Altitude hold. Vertical velocity has to be essentially zero. If climbing or descending, it won't engage.

I use the control inputs overlay to get confirmation that it engaged. Same with Auto-hover. It will appear in white text inside that square if it "sticks".

If you've done all the above, and it doesn't engage, then try cycling the Autopilot button on the cyclic (i have it bound on my HOTAS, so I don't remember what the keybind is)

I find that I never use the trim in the Gazelle. Not the mag brake centering, and not the roll or pitch trim either. Maybe I'm missing out? But I'm either flying straight and level for transit (Alt hold), or maneuvering (fully hands-on cyclic and collective).

tl;dr

RCtrl+Enter is your friend

And one more thing:

Do you have the fuel lever (short one next to the rotor brake) bound to a HOTAS axis?

If so make sure it is fully engaged 100%, NOT 99%!

If you consistently can engage hover hold with a breeze, you are probably good. Otherwise add a small saturation (don't remember which) to that axis so it is guaranteed to be 100%, otherwise non of the AP stuff will engage.

As Holton181 says. It had me scratching my head for some time trying to figure this out. It's only when the new lighting model made the master warning light very obvious that I figured something wasn't right. Pulling back and then rehoming the fuel lever fixed the issue and I was able to engage AP properly. It's now part of my ground checks.

I did wonder why the master alarm wouldn’t go out at first but spotted the fuel lever to full thing as doing this cancels a bunch of other warning lights on the console as well. Yes, it’s mapped to an axis on the HOTAS along with the brake.

Couple of questions from Wakeshifts post;

Nav Align. Not sure I’m doing this correctly as while I do turn the NADIR on I don’t really understand the system so pay little attention to it. I thought the Gyro was the system that the AP depended on.

The AP Hold button is the one on the cyclic, correct? The reason I ask is because in the control mappings the one in the Autopilot section reads Master on/off and the one in the Pilots Stick reads Autopilot Master. Don’t seem to be able to find an Autopilot Hold mapping anywhere.

I’ll give the overlay a try to get some feedback on the AP engaging and read what it takes to confirm the NADIR is fully up an aligned.

Thanks for the feedback.

For the NADIR at startup:

Turn the knob to VIELLE - you should see 3 red warnings in the display above it. One will go out quickly. After a minute or two, the others will go out, indicating the alignment is complete. Turn the knob to TERRE.

The NADIR system includes the gyro, the radar altimeter, and I think a couple other systems to integrate position, direction, velocity, etc.

I don't know if AP works without NADIR aligned; maybe it does? I'd have to check. It was scary at first, but once you know it, the waypoints are super quick and easy to use and the system is really good.

Altitude hold and Speed hold are the up and down positions respectively on the small switch to the right of the R/P/Y axes switches. It will stay 'up' if it correctly engages, and will return to center if not. Same with speed hold, but in the 'down' position.

Yes, I was talking about the button on the cyclic. There's no indication in cockpit that I've found to tell whether this button is on or off. Lately, if I never touch it, the Alt Hold always works. Click it once and I can't get Alt Hold. Click it again and I can. So its something I check, in case I accidentally bumped it off.

Hope this helps!

You need to be in a hover first to engage the auto hover........if you are up high then turn the artificial horizon to doppler to give you the best chance.....push the cyclic towards the cross until it is centred....then engage.....it is best to have it mapped to a hotas button so you can snap it on and off.....as for showing if it is on or not.....use the control display (#button on the keyboard)