Hi -

Have any of you tried flying the DC-3 in FSCOF with the autopilot? When I do, the aircraft immediately starts yawing back and forth in ever-widening arcs, and finally becomes totally unflyable. This behavior changes as soon as the autopilot is switched off. I have read elsewhere that this is a common phenomenon with FSCOF's DC-3. Is there another aircraft that is available that has a better flight model?

Regards,

William

• RE: FSCOF DC-3 Autopilot ?,James, 21:11z, 09-10-03
  • RE: FSCOF DC-3 Autopilot ?,WScofield, 15:40z, 09-11-03
    • RE: FSCOF DC-3 Autopilot ?,Ben_Chiu, 23:50z, 09-11-03
      • RE: FSCOF DC-3 Autopilot ?,WScofield, 00:55z, 09-12-03
        • RE: FSCOF DC-3 Autopilot ?,Ben_Chiu, 05:23z, 09-12-03
          • RE: FSCOF DC-3 Autopilot ?,WScofield, 02:38z, 09-13-03
            • RE: FSCOF DC-3 Autopilot ?,Ben_Chiu, 04:17z, 09-13-03
            • RE: FSCOF DC-3 Autopilot ?,James, 16:37z, 09-13-03

Hi William,

What reality settings do you have set? I fly the DC-3 with RCS's Panel and the Aerosoft's MCP747 A/P with no problem what so ever, no matter what I have it set to!

Regards,

James (CONman) Anderson

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LAST EDITED ON 09-11-03 AT 15:41z ()

Hi James -

I have everything pretty much moved over to the right as far as possible. This is the "default" DC-3 that comes with FSCOF. I am wondering if there are other DC-3 aircraft or flight models that people would recommend.

William

Hi guys:

On a semi-related note, we had Kurt Blakenship (NASA research pilot for the icing division) out here the other night and he said that more C-47's flying "the hump" were lost during WWII to icing than enemy aircraft. I didn't know that, but I guess at the altitudes required to fly over those mountains and flying non-ice protected aircraft, well, it makes sense.

Ben

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Hi Ben -

I'm still trying to get the answer to the DC-3 autopilot question. I really don't understand this. I tried moving the realism settings back to "medium," and even engaging the auto-rudder feature - not the way I fly, and not the way a DC-3 operates either. I stabilize the aircraft at altitude and heading, and engage the default autopilot.

At that point, the plane begins a series of ever-increasing yaws back and forth, left and right, and up and down, and ultimately becomes uncontrollable and crashes. This is an autopilot? With autopilots like that, we might as well keep giving the crew black coffee and throwing ice water in their faces, because that's the only way they're going to land in one piece.

Am I missing something basic here? Or is this "as real as it gets"?

William

Hi William:

I just flew the stock DC-3 on autopilot for 1.5 hours and didn't see what you've seen. I have all of my realism setting all the way to the right.

The only things that come to mind are controller spikes, some add-on conflict/causing the problem or corrupted file. Sorry I couldn't be of more help with this.

Ben

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Hi Ben -

Well, I sure am not figuring this out. After receiving your message, I went back to try it again. The last several times (not just once) the A/P was completely kaflooy on the DC-3. Not other aircraft. But the DC-3 was just wacko - with wild developing swings in attitude that completely de-stabilized the aircraft. And in my searching I found a number of similar reports on other forums.

Now, tonight, it behaves itself admirably. In fact, I can't get it to duplicate the weirdnesses I have become accustomed to experiencing.

I haven't changed anything. I tried several different realism settings, and I'm OK on all of them. I tried auto-rudder or not - it makes no significant difference. I usually fly with "real" weather - maybe that is a factor, although we have not had any major weather shifts in NE recently (keep an eye on Isabell, though. could be fun ahead!)

So I don't really understand. I have no peripherals, other than a joystick and a printer, and they haven't changed. I didn't re-install or delete anything. But I also didn't hallucinate the problems I was experiencing - or imagine the posts I read about from others who ran into the same thing. So - I really don't know what's going on. Maybe somebody else does.

Meanwhile . . .

William

Hi William:

> Well, I sure am not figuring this out. After receiving your message, I
> went back to try it again. The last several times (not just once) the
> A/P was completely kaflooy on the DC-3. Not other aircraft. But the DC-3
> was just wacko - with wild developing swings in attitude that completely
> de-stabilized the aircraft. And in my searching I found a number of
> similar reports on other forums.
>
> Now, tonight, it behaves itself admirably. In fact, I can't get it to
> duplicate the weirdnesses I have become accustomed to experiencing.

LOL, isn't that always the case. Well, what's that say, don't look a gift horse in the mouth?

> I haven't changed anything. I tried several different realism settings,
> and I'm OK on all of them. I tried auto-rudder or not - it makes no
> significant difference. I usually fly with "real" weather - maybe that
> is a factor, although we have not had any major weather shifts in NE
> recently (keep an eye on Isabell, though. could be fun ahead!)

"Fun" in a sim.

> So I don't really understand. I have no peripherals, other than a
> joystick and a printer, and they haven't changed. I didn't re-install or
> delete anything. But I also didn't hallucinate the problems I was
> experiencing - or imagine the posts I read about from others who ran
> into the same thing. So - I really don't know what's going on. Maybe
> somebody else does.

I believe you had problems. In past versions of FS, intermittent "bugs" were eventually traced back to a sequence of events such as how the last flight ended (in a crash, not landing, or normal landing), whether the autopilot was engaged at the time, when switching aircraft with the above parameters, whether an Adventure previously run was interrupted, whether the flight was a saved flight or a new flight, and the list goes on and on. Perhaps you can figure out a sequence of events when you run into the problem again.

Again, sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Ben

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Hi William,

Sorry for the delay, but.....

I'm glad you seem to have settled the DC-3 down <s>. As Ben has mentioned, a never ending list of causes which can take a life time to figure out. I went back to a default set up on a 2nd pc to see if I could duplicate your scenario, but could not duplicate??

I'm having an Altitude problem with an add on aircraft that I can't fathom out, such is life <s>....

Happy flying in FSCOF.

Regards,

James (CONman) Anderson

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