Autopilot keeps disengaging NAV mode (VOR-to-VOR navigation)
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@HansDeVlieger
I did tests some time ago with several aircraft. Here is a copy of what I found from the related MSFS forum entry:
Found the same problem with the following aircraft:BKSQ Caravan PMDG DC-6 NAMS YS-11 Default Beech King Air C90 GTxHowever I did NOT find the problem with the following aircraft:
Beech Baron G58 Beech King Air 350i Beech Bonanza G36 Saab 340 Cessna Citation CJ4 Cessna Caravan EX SWS Kodiak TBM 930I did all tests “Ready for take-off” from KSNA with 115.3 OCN Oceanside VOR, flying to and from the VOR in about 3-5000 ft.
@George-Curious Do you use FSUIPC, SPAD. neXt, MobiFlight or Axis-and-Ohs, just to try to zoom in? In any case, the issue doesn't seem to be related to any aircraft or developer in particular then.
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@George-Curious Do you use FSUIPC, SPAD. neXt, MobiFlight or Axis-and-Ohs, just to try to zoom in? In any case, the issue doesn't seem to be related to any aircraft or developer in particular then.
@HansDeVlieger
I don't use any add-ons besides aircraft and sceneries. -
So, also those won't probably cause the issue.
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@George-Curious Interesting that the Default Asobo King Air does this. I'm away-from-sim for a few days, but I might try to repro that. If I'm able to, I'll tag the moderators on my original bug post in the FS2024 forums.
I also might try to whip up a quick .NET app that monitors some of the NAV/VOR SimConnect variables and see if there's anything interesting going on. My hypothesis is that the VOR signal is intermittently dropping for a short period of time (seconds? milliseconds?), and since the autopilot can't receive it, it reverts to ROL or some other default mode. Perhaps some autopilots have a longer polling interval for receiving the signal than others, and are more resilient to signal drops. Since BKSQ likely uses common code for most/all planes, it might explain why I'm able to repro this behavior on all of them. All wild guesses, but it sort of makes sense as I think about this.
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By they way, it seems like we pretty much ruled out everything (SPAD, FSUIPC, signal degradation, many different plane developers, hardware bindings and valid in-sim situations)...
I'm slowly getting desperate. During flight I can just substitute NAV with HDG and it's not a biggie, but it repeatedly disconnected nav/gs on ILS approaches, which almost run me into mountains
As such... did any one of the impacted people try reinstalling the sim or at least "repairing files"? I prefer to ask before trying it myself because I pretty much have the same install since MSFS2024 appeared and I'm not sure anymore if I didn't tinker with it in some way. -
Yesterday I actually started wiring up the app I mentioned to monitor SimConnect variables. I had it polling the VOR signal strength every tenth of a second. No correlation quite yet as I had several disconnects while monitoring, but no drop in strength that I could see. I'll see what other variables I can monitor today.
I'm guessing my chances of finding something is pretty slim, but it's a good refresher for me with C#/.NET; it's been a while.
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Thanks for the status report. I'm still testing, but I might have found something. Might have gotten lucky a few flights and am afraid to jinx it.
What I did was going the "repair files" route but before I clicked the button I decided to back up my Community folder. So I renamed it, clicked repair files and launched the sim. It created a new Community folder creating new files/folders for the Marketplace purchased streamed content (StreamedPackages). Then I just added my old custom content from "Community" and "Community 2024", leaving the new streamed content Marketplace installations intact and... for now it works.
Maybe, just maybe it was a corrupt general sim file or some faulty streamed content installations (I have multiple sceneries purchased on the Marketplace, so maybe on of them messed up nav data?). Or I'm just lucky and the disappointment will strike soon
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Thanks for the status report. I'm still testing, but I might have found something. Might have gotten lucky a few flights and am afraid to jinx it.
What I did was going the "repair files" route but before I clicked the button I decided to back up my Community folder. So I renamed it, clicked repair files and launched the sim. It created a new Community folder creating new files/folders for the Marketplace purchased streamed content (StreamedPackages). Then I just added my old custom content from "Community" and "Community 2024", leaving the new streamed content Marketplace installations intact and... for now it works.
Maybe, just maybe it was a corrupt general sim file or some faulty streamed content installations (I have multiple sceneries purchased on the Marketplace, so maybe on of them messed up nav data?). Or I'm just lucky and the disappointment will strike soon
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Ok... So on a whim I tried repairing my files (well, verifying my install with Steam -- it repaired two files) and for I forget how many flights now for nearly 10 days making conscious effort to put some VOR-to-VOR navigation using NAV mode into my flight plans I haven't yet experienced any random AP disengaging.
That doesn't prove it can't happen... since you can't prove a negative... but it's certainly encouraging. It used to reliably disengage once or twice per flight and so far I've had trouble-free navigation since repairing my files.
