King Air FD Disconnect key?
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The manual mentions that a second press of the AP disconnect button disabled the FD. That is only true when clocking the button on the yoke, but I have not found an input binding so far. I usually have "Autopilot Off" on the yoke, which acts as the disconnect in other planes (notably the FBW A320), but only appears to act as switching the AP off on the controller in the King Air.
So is there a bindable input?
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@laurreth have you tried the TOGGLE_FLIGHT_DIRECTOR event?
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@anderson I have now, but that doesn't work as advertised. The manual mentions that the plane has no dedicated control for disabling the FD, but instead is emulating a two-stage pushbutton on the yoke that disconnects the AP on the first stage and the FD on the second by having the AP disconnect disable the FD on the second press.
The Toggle FD bind makes the FD bars twitch when pressed while AP is on, and toggle FD while AP is off.
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@laurreth not sure if I followed you, but I believe it's possible to configure such behaviour using spad.next. It will require some logic to be developed though. Basically, pressing the Yoke's AP button would follow the sequence as indicated below
a) (1st press) FD On -> (2nd press) AP On
then
b) (1st press) AP Off -> (2nd press) FD Off
then back to (a) if you press the button again.
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From the developer for you...
This has bothered me in my own flying too. I should have implemented it with an L:Var, or added a key binding. K:TOGGLE_FLIGHT_DIRECTOR should work, except when the Working Title GNS530 is in use as NAV/COM 1. This is a known bug with WT's custom autopilot implementation that I have mentioned to them in the past. I will bring it up again next time we are talking, which should be soon. For the sake of completeness for anyone trying to build a home cockpit setup for the King Air, here is the RPN code that is run when the autopilot disconnect button is pressed. The top is for the first press, and the bottom is for the second.
(A:AUTOPILOT MASTER, bool) if{
(>K:AP_MASTER)
(A:AUTOPILOT YAW DAMPER, Bool) if{ (>K:YAW_DAMPER_TOGGLE) }
2 (>L:BKSQ_AUTOPILOT_DISCONNECT_SOUND, bool)
}
els{
(A:AUTOPILOT FLIGHT DIRECTOR ACTIVE, Bool) if{ (>K:TOGGLE_FLIGHT_DIRECTOR) }
(A:AUTOPILOT HEADING LOCK,bool) if{ (>K:AP_HDG_HOLD) }
(A:AUTOPILOT NAV1 LOCK,bool) if{ (>K:AP_NAV1_HOLD) }
(A:AUTOPILOT APPROACH HOLD,bool) if{ (>K:AP_APR_HOLD) }
(A:AUTOPILOT ALTITUDE LOCK,bool) if{ (>K:AP_ALT_HOLD) }
(A:AUTOPILOT GLIDESLOPE HOLD,bool) if{ (>K:AP_LOC_HOLD) }
(A:AUTOPILOT FLIGHT LEVEL CHANGE,bool) if{ (>K:AP_FLIGHT_LEVEL_CHANGE_OFF) }
0 (>L:var_iasHoldMode, bool)
}
