learjet autopilot

  • I'm trying to learn the autopilot on my LearJet. Just a simple flight LAX to SFO. AP, YD was on and so was ALT. I did turn off AP looked away and took the plane with me. I was way off course so I turned AP back on. I ended up doing circles. What did I do wrong so I do not do it again and can I fix this with out a reset. I did try and turn ap off then get back on course then turn it on again. It flew my Lear in circles again. (Rift VR)

  • I was referring you to the wiki for procedure. We are still fine tuning the use of the motion controllers so we will have to look into your issue to make sure that it isn't a bug that was missed.

    I hope that you are enjoying using the Touch controllers, it's personally my favorite feature so far :)

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • Thanks Jeff. I do love them also just turning my head around to see the back of the Lear or to look down and feel that I'm at 30,000 feet it great.

    I will never get used to being that high up and being on the outside. =O It is just not right somehow. But I had to try it just once.:)

  • This has nothing to do with the control method of choice, its the same "feature" for mouse or vr hands. Its a bug, its just the quirks of the real autopilot you need to get used to.

    When you are not near the route the autopilot loses it and reverts to the basic lateral mode, which is heading for the A320, bank hold for the 737, 747, C90, Q400 and also the Learjet. When you then turn the autopilot back on it just maintains the bank attitude you engaged it at - and it will fly circles until you tell it otherwise. If you look at the primary flight display (PFD) it should say "BNK" or "ATT" or "ROL" (depending on the aircraft).

    When you level the wings first, then engage the autopilot with less than 5 degrees of bank attitude it will first level the wings to exactly 0 degrees and then remember the heading its flying and hold that (heading hold). Then it reads out "HDG HOLD", "HOLD", "ROL" or "LVL on the PFD, depending on the aircraft.

    To get back onto your route you need to use the heading mode. In the Learjet you can push the heading knob to set the current heading, then turn the knob to adjust it. When you have the heading you want you can push the heading button above it to engage the heading select mode. The autopilot will then turn towards the selected heading. Adjust your heading with the knob until you intercept the route.

    Then push NAV button with the navigation source set to FMS as described in the wiki.

  • Dholm I don't know what could be happening, but I can fly normally the Learjet in VR mode with the AP on, but I'm currently using my external physical controllers (TM Joystick and Throttle) and the mouse, not the VR hands or any touch controller. The only noticeable thing to me is that during takeoff, to keep a controllable speed around 150-160 knots, the aircraft pitch is quite high, which seems to me is not quite normal.

    Cheers, Ed

  • Dholm I don't know what could be happening, but I can fly normally the Learjet in VR mode with the AP on, but I'm currently using my external physical controllers (TM Joystick and Throttle) and the mouse, not the VR hands or any touch controller. The only noticeable thing to me is that during takeoff, to keep a controllable speed around 150-160 knots, the aircraft pitch is quite high, which seems to me is not quite normal.

    Cheers, Ed

    Under normal conditions you wouldn't use full thrust, especially if the aircraft is as light as we currently have modeled it.

    But these business jets are quite powerful in the real world, otherwise they wouldn't be able to get above the 50k feet. And they need to get out of airports with short runways, so a bit more thrust can't hurt, especially if money is not so much an issue :D

  • Good point. I normally keep my thrust at 86% during the takeoff. Should I reduce this value to look for a lower pitch rate or it’s Ok?.

    Cheers, Ed

    That sounds good enough. You can climb the first three thousand feet with a high pitch attitude, nobody is stopping you :)

    I usually do a normal rotation and by the time I have 20 degrees of pitch I am very fast so I just raise the flaps and gear and aim for the 250kt for the climb. And if I want to stay low and slow I just need to pull the thrust levers back early.

  • In relation with the learjet I applied a key in the settings for the course up/down. This does not work in the plane.

    Regards,

    Thomas

    i7-14700KF @ 5.6 GHz, Geforce RTX 4090, 32MB RAM, 1TB SSD M.2, 1TB SSD M.2, 2TB SSD M.2, 32" Monitor 4K, Pimax Crystal

    • Official Post

    In relation with the learjet I applied a key in the settings for the course up/down. This does not work in the plane.

    That is probably because the learjet reroutes the stepping of the course internally. For example if the pilot has VOR1 selected and rotates the left knob on the glareshield he is adjusting course 1 but when he selects VOR2 its course 2. I will look into this. Are there other aircraft where the course is not working for you

  • B737, to be clear I can turn the course in the cockpit, no problem, one can only not assign a key to + - of course 1 and 2 in the settings of the navigation.

    Regards,

    Thomas

    i7-14700KF @ 5.6 GHz, Geforce RTX 4090, 32MB RAM, 1TB SSD M.2, 1TB SSD M.2, 2TB SSD M.2, 32" Monitor 4K, Pimax Crystal

  • That is probably because the learjet reroutes the stepping of the course internally. For example if the pilot has VOR1 selected and rotates the left knob on the glareshield he is adjusting course 1 but when he selects VOR2 its course 2. I will look into this. Are there other aircraft where the course is not working for you

    Not at this time I'm using my Lear to lean about AP Once I understand more I will change to something else. (this is my first flying sim. Too old and poor to learn to fly in RL like my parents did in the early 50"s)

  • I come back to my initial question which has not been answered: why does the key assignment for the course (e.g. F9 for - and F10 for+) not work. I am connecting rotary encoders via a leobodnar board. Works fine with ALT, SPEED, VS and HDG but not with CRS.

    Regards,

    Thomas

    Regards,

    Thomas

    i7-14700KF @ 5.6 GHz, Geforce RTX 4090, 32MB RAM, 1TB SSD M.2, 1TB SSD M.2, 2TB SSD M.2, 32" Monitor 4K, Pimax Crystal

  • Does one have to tune in the ils freq for the destination airport manually when flying the learjet? i notice i have to do this and i do it before departure from the origin airport. This is when i plan a flight within the aerofly menu (arrival / departure AP).

    Also if I quit AFS2 enroute and then boot up AFS2 later i notice i have lost my ils frequencies i entered and have to reenter the frequencies and the correct course of the destination runway again, will this be fixed in a future update?