B377 Autopilot

BIG, double-deck, four-engine, medium to long range, high altitude, high speed, commercial transport airplane
seejay
Senior Airman
Posts: 132
Joined: 04 Aug 2008, 19:45

Re: B377 Autopilot

Post by seejay »

I've tried more that once to get the Stato Autopilot the operate as I think It should or as described in the Forums. Be darned if I can get it to track a course in any mode. Occasionally it will track an ILS, I believe I'm familiar enough with RW and Sim flying to be able to set up approaches etc. I get the feeling that the AP doesn't always activate, while there is an indicator that the AP is activated, I can't find an indicator to show which Mode is actived Am I missing something ?? Raebo, outlined a trip, approach and landing assisted by the A/P. My Strato's A/P refused to operate as he outlined . I have to be doing something wrong. Oh yes,!!! there was a discussion about the Strato's landing attitude... As I understand it, nearly all the round engined Heavies--Connies, DC7S's and Stratos etc slide down the glide path in a nose down attitude, where as heavy jets usually had a nose up attitude. The Heavy Props had to be rotated with lots of trim to a slight nose up attitude to land and avoid porposing down the runway. It was hard on nose gear as well. :)

Jason210
Staff Sergeant
Posts: 323
Joined: 02 Feb 2011, 14:22

Re: B377 Autopilot

Post by Jason210 »

I'm not expert on this autopilot, but as far as I can see, it has two settings:

a) "On" which locks the heading and pitch

b) "Altitude Hold" which locks the plane at the current altitude. This will only work when the unit is on and therefore heading locked.

There's no way it can hold or track a course as in a modern day VOR. These VOR gauges work just like ADF indicators. They point to the radio station. The problem is that this indicated direction is NOT necessarily the course heading - rather it's the direction to the beacon relative to the true heading of the aircraft. The course would only be the same as the true heading if there is no cross-wind element (which is rare).

What I do on beacon-to-beacon navigation is tune one unit into the station I'm going to, and one to the station I have been at. The needles should be lined up with each other, forming a straight line, when you are on course. If there is there is cross-wind component present then the needles will be slightly off the vertical, but still in a straight line. If the needles are crossed then it means that you are off course.

When the wind component is unknown, you can start a leg by keeping your true heading the same as the beacon heading. You will drift off course and see quite soon which side the wind is coming from. From then on you can use trial and error to correct it, or, you can continue to observe the amount of drift per nm and use this to determine the wind component and work out the actual heading you need to fly to keep the course.

/Jason
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Intel Core i9-9900K @ 3.6GHz
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jahman
Senior Airman
Posts: 151
Joined: 30 Jun 2007, 13:01

Re: B377 Autopilot

Post by jahman »

bigjuicyspider wrote:Jason210,
...
I'm not familiar with the program you are using to populate the FSX sky with stars,
FSX has a 9,100 star catalog that is astronomically-correct. The main problem is the stars are too bright so you see too many in the night sky so finding the right star becomes difficult (at least for me...)

Are you all using the bubble sxtant by Dave Bitzer? If so, how are you integrating it for use with the B-377 in FSX? Are you also using the B-3 Drifmeter?

Cheers,

- jahman.

Jason210
Staff Sergeant
Posts: 323
Joined: 02 Feb 2011, 14:22

Re: B377 Autopilot

Post by Jason210 »

jahman wrote:
bigjuicyspider wrote:Jason210,
...
I'm not familiar with the program you are using to populate the FSX sky with stars,
FSX has a 9,100 star catalog that is astronomically-correct. The main problem is the stars are too bright so you see too many in the night sky so finding the right star becomes difficult (at least for me...)

Are you all using the bubble sxtant by Dave Bitzer? If so, how are you integrating it for use with the B-377 in FSX? Are you also using the B-3 Drifmeter?

Cheers,

- jahman.
Hi Jahman

I'm using Dave Bitzer's Bubble S'extant, together with its accompanying chart extension gauge. To integrate them I placed both gauges in the FSX gauges file, then modified the panel.cfg file for the b377.

I wanted to use the gauges to replace the moving map (F5). First, in the panel.cfg, under [Windows Titles], change Window04 to this:

Window04=Se'xtant

Then scroll down to find the Window04 definition, and change it to this:

[Window04]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=650,277
position=0
visible=0
ident=18
gauge00=BB_se'xtant4!se'xtant, 261,3,386,270
gauge01=BB_se'xtant4!CH, 1,3,270,270

Of course you don't use an apostrophy in the word se'xtant!

And if you want to keep the moving map gauge, you should add a new window title and window, such as window09.

I'm not using the B-3 Driftmeter

Hope this helps,
Jason
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Intel Core i9-9900K @ 3.6GHz
nVidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
32GB RAM
Windows 10 Professional

jahman
Senior Airman
Posts: 151
Joined: 30 Jun 2007, 13:01

Re: B377 Autopilot

Post by jahman »

Many thanks, Jason, I'll gve it a try!

Cheers,

- jahman.

Alyot
Airman
Posts: 19
Joined: 23 Nov 2005, 04:07
Location: Eugene, Oregon USA

Re: B377 Autopilot

Post by Alyot »

Hi.

On a topic related note, I used to have my turn handle set up on 2 buttons, one turn right, the other turn left. ...since I don't have a spare axis to plug into the control manager that came with this. After a reinstall, I don't remember how I did that. Could someone please remind me? Thanks. :D

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ThomasAH
Airman First Class
Posts: 60
Joined: 13 Jun 2016, 11:07

Re: B377 Autopilot

Post by ThomasAH »

Alyot wrote:On a topic related note, I used to have my turn handle set up on 2 buttons, one turn right, the other turn left. ...since I don't have a spare axis to plug into the control manager that came with this. After a reinstall, I don't remember how I did that. Could someone please remind me? Thanks. :D
I'm using FSUIPC4 for that:

FSX/Modules/b377.mcro:

Code: Select all

[Macros]
1=L:APTurn=Set
2=L:APTurn=Inc
3=L:APTurn=Dec
FSX/Modules/Profiles/B377.ini:

Code: Select all

[Buttons]
25=CP(+J,13)J,32,C65808,1       -{AP_ALT_HOLD_ON}-
26=CR(+J,13)J,36,CM1:1,50       -{Macro b377: L:APTurn set}-
27=CR(+J,13)J,38,CM1:2,100      -{Macro b377: L:APTurn inc}-
28=CR(+J,13)J,34,CM1:3,0        -{Macro b377: L:APTurn dec}-
(of course you may want to use a different combination of buttons: I use the POV hat, but only if button 13 is pressed)

Alyot
Airman
Posts: 19
Joined: 23 Nov 2005, 04:07
Location: Eugene, Oregon USA

Re: B377 Autopilot

Post by Alyot »

Thank you. I'll try and figure that out. I don't remember it as being that complex. I thought I had just, like you, used my right POV on a CH Products eclipse yoke to use the heading increase and decrease, but I just used the FSX key mapper for that. Thanks again.

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ThomasAH
Airman First Class
Posts: 60
Joined: 13 Jun 2016, 11:07

Re: B377 Autopilot

Post by ThomasAH »

Alyot wrote:but I just used the FSX key mapper for that. Thanks again.
Maybe you used the B377 input configurator tool?

And the manual mentions Autopilot (decrease max bank) and Autopilot (increase max bank) FSX events, so maybe you can configure it in FSX itself?
I have disabled joystick support in FSX and do everything from within FSUIPC, so I don't know :)

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