Unusual and unusable autopilot climb/descent behavior

[wagz0627 0]

Hello,

I’ve attempted two flights with the CRJ (first the 550 and second the 700) and encountered climb/descent behavior completely at odds with what is commanded on the autopilot panel.

 

First, on both flights I was climbing in SPD mode at 290kias selected.  It was fine for a while but at some point both times the flight directors commanded a pitch of about 10° and speed bleeds off continuously if unchecked.  Both times I was able to switch to VS and then back to SPD, dial in 290 again and it climbed as expected until my cruise altitude.

 

Second on both flights in descent, I begin a VS descent at TOD following VNAV guidance with an altitude selected much lower (6000 or 8000).  At first everything is fine but both times now at some random point in the descent the flight director commands level flight for no reason.  Selecting altitude hold and then VS again and dialing in a VS does nothing.  I’ve also attempted turning off the FD/Autopilot and then re engaging both but it’s still stuck in level flight no matter what.  I’m attaching two quick phone shots that show -3300fpm VS annunciated on the PFD and VS button illuminated but nose level commanded on the FDs.

 

My input hardware is the Honeycomb alpha and bravo throttles.  Is this a Bravo compatibility issue?  I don’t use the bravo autopilot controls with the CRJ and do everything by mouse control.

 

As of now these two bugs, the descent issue mainly, are game breaking and make my $50 investment unusable.  I’d appreciate any help and other user reports.  Thanks.

Please login to display this image.

Please login to display this image.

[PJ Pilot 4]

I have had the exact same things happen to me on my flights.

Your first issue of speed bleeding off is what happened on my first flight, and I was not able to recover from that. I disengaged Autopilot, turned on anti-ice, and descended about 6,000 feet. After I had manually stabilized the flight, I reengaged the auto-pilot, and the stab trim went to a high nose up, and I started loosing speed. I have only seen that issue once.

The second issue I've seen twice so far. At some point during descent, the plane levels off on its own, and I cannot get it to continue down while in auto-pilot. Once I continued the descent manually all the way to landing, but I found stable flight very difficult to achieve (couldn't get it trimmed). The second time I tried every combination of resetting the auto-pilot I could think of before I eventually gave up and walked away. 

I am also using Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo. I have been using the AP controls on the bravo to control the VS and Speed, although I'm not sure if that matters though, as this latest fault while descending happened when I was not giving any input, and was just monitoring the flight.

I will also say that I do normally pause my flights as I can't normally get through a 1.5 block without some distraction in the house. I only mention this because I've seen it come up in other threads.

So far this has been 3 severe issues I've had in the only 3 flights I've attempted with this plane.

[JRBarrett 675]

This may be an issue with either the alpha or bravo controllers. I do have the Honeycomb yoke myself, (with all “always on” switches unmapped to avoid the known MSFS “10 degree increment” bug). In many many hours of test flying, I have never had the issues you describe, but I have no doubt that something is happening in your installation that does not affect mine.

 

Since two reports of a similar problem are coming from users who both have the Honeycomb Bravo, and in light of the fact that the Bravo has autopilot controls, I suspect it has something to do with that controller.

[Thx1137 65]

26 minutes ago, JRBarrett said:

I suspect it has something to do with that controller.

Yeah, unmapping all always-on switches is the only way to go. I've had zero flight issues with this bird since then. I use VJoy to map to the aircraft controls instead. I might have to create a video on how to do it seeing I don't think Asobo is going to fix them. but it isn't a trivial process! Even if I supply the VJoy config!

[CaptHawkeye 0]

  Glad I found this thread.  I just had this issue myself on descent and could not figure out why it leveled off and stopped descending.  I do not pause the sim, but I do use the Honeycomb Bravo.  I don't use any of the AP buttons on the Bravo, but instead push the buttons in-cockpit with the mouse.  I noticed when it was holding altitude instead of descending that the ALT button was illuminated on the Bravo instead of the VS button.  I don't know whether that has anything to do with it or not, but I'll be taking the above advice and just unmapping everything up there for the time being.

 

 

Please login to display this image.

[wagz0627 0]

Since it seems we all use the Bravo, I’m going to create a new profile and unmap all the autopilot controls and test.  Unsure when I’ll be able to but I’ll report back.

[wagz0627 0]

Update post.

 

I created a new profile for the CRJ and unbound all the autopilot controls and toggle switches on the Bravo (only had parking breaks and pitot heat on a couple of the toggle switches).  
 

Did a very quick PIT-PHL hop and all was fine, so it appears certain mappings on the Bravo are to blame.

[metzgergva 210]

Because we believe this topic has been answered we have closed it. If you have any more questions feel free to open a new topic.