A36 Heading in Free mode
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My Compass heading and HSI heading are off by 10°, most of the time, so I place it in Free mode and adjust my HSI to match the compass but when I do that and want autopilot to follow my heading, it is not aligned. For example, if I place my heading bug at 190° and in Free mode while in autopilot, the plane flies a heading of 196°. Is this normal behavior?
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If you have windshield heat on, or some other high electrical load circuits, then your magnetic compass will be offset by several degrees depending on intensity of the electromagnetic fields generated by those circuits. The windshield heat is typically the most obvious and significant cause.
This models real world behavior and is why many aircraft have reminder placards that state magnetic compass should not be used when windshield heat is in use as well (though I don’t recall if the Duke/Baron/Bonanza include that placard).
There are some notes on this effect in the manual and you can experiment with different circuits to see the effect (toggle your windshield heat, starter, or pitot heat and observe the compass). You should generally avoid slewing your HSI to match the compass.
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If you have windshield heat on, or some other high electrical load circuits, then your magnetic compass will be offset by several degrees depending on intensity of the electromagnetic fields generated by those circuits. The windshield heat is typically the most obvious and significant cause.
This models real world behavior and is why many aircraft have reminder placards that state magnetic compass should not be used when windshield heat is in use as well (though I don’t recall if the Duke/Baron/Bonanza include that placard).
There are some notes on this effect in the manual and you can experiment with different circuits to see the effect (toggle your windshield heat, starter, or pitot heat and observe the compass). You should generally avoid slewing your HSI to match the compass.
@Iconography Yes, I am aware of the windshield heat causing problems with the Compass and I didn't have the windshield heat on when observing this. I didn't have any GPS unit installed just the radios but I did have the weather radar on. I will toggle this on and off next time to see if this makes an impact. Thanks for the response.
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My Compass heading and HSI heading are off by 10°, most of the time, so I place it in Free mode and adjust my HSI to match the compass but when I do that and want autopilot to follow my heading, it is not aligned. For example, if I place my heading bug at 190° and in Free mode while in autopilot, the plane flies a heading of 196°. Is this normal behavior?
@pbrad74 Hi, I wanted to update you on the issue you raised. I ran some tests here in the Dominican Republic, at Puerto Plata Airport. I aligned myself with runway 08, which according to the Jeppesen charts is at 084 degrees. However, there is a magnetic deviation of 12 degrees west in this location. As a result, when I align with the runway, I see the compass showing 95 degrees, which is exactly 084 plus the 12-degree west deviation. So, it seems that the compass is pointing to true north rather than magnetic north. Could this be the root of the problem? I believe it might be a compass configuration issue or some incorrect variable inside the FS2020 or Black Square software. Let me know your thoughts!
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@pbrad74 Hi, I wanted to update you on the issue you raised. I ran some tests here in the Dominican Republic, at Puerto Plata Airport. I aligned myself with runway 08, which according to the Jeppesen charts is at 084 degrees. However, there is a magnetic deviation of 12 degrees west in this location. As a result, when I align with the runway, I see the compass showing 95 degrees, which is exactly 084 plus the 12-degree west deviation. So, it seems that the compass is pointing to true north rather than magnetic north. Could this be the root of the problem? I believe it might be a compass configuration issue or some incorrect variable inside the FS2020 or Black Square software. Let me know your thoughts!
@Dinamika70 I appreciate your willingness to investigate the problem, but the issue is as described by @jmarkows, and has been fixed for the next update.
