Glideslope problems
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Must be a weird combination from weight, balance, weather, trim and perhaps timing (gear down, flaps, speed). Sometimes, at slow speeds the aircraft indeed feels a bit sensitive around the elevators but manageable.
Yesterday I had the worst case, where the autopilot corrected to around 0-200 FPM and stopped further corrections during approach. That was in EGLL, not much wind, no gusts, perfect configuration, turbulence even set to low… it was simply not able to hold the glideslope. -
What's truly bizarre to me is that the JF F-28 is perfect every time. Subject to the same variables as the 146, including the MSFS turbulence and weather settings. Never a problem. But the 146 is absolutely terrible on the glideslope with the autopilot. Exasperating!
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That is a good idea. I use always Simbrief and import the weights. Perhaps I should try some flights with standard-weight-settings.
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I have now tested this and have not changed the loading of the 146-100 (apart from the fuel). I can therefore rule out the influence of the "simbrief conditions".
My tests were carried out exclusively with the BAE146-100.I can definitely say that the autopilot has a problem with
a) the transition from climb/descent to level flight at slower speeds
b) holding the glidesloperegarding a): at slower speeds (I tested in the range between 220-180 knots) when reaching an armed altitude and transitioning to level flight, the autopilot regularly start oscillating up and down. After a while (a few minutes), it recovers. At higher speeds, for example climb to cruise alt and transitioning to level flight it worked well.
regarding b): when following the glideslope, the autopilot either oscillates regularly up / down or it deviates upwards or downwards from the path and then no longer corrects this. For me, in 9 out of 10 cases it is not usable.
I have now made many flights with the BAE146-100 because it is otherwise a very nice airplane. At least one of the above problems has occurred in every single one of these flights. These were flights in all kinds of weather, with or without wind. I am therefore of the opinion that this is a permanent and reproducible problem that does not have to be proven by any records.
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FWIW, I've been running into those issues some more, but going into SYNC and quickly trimming out the aircraft fairly reliably "fixes" autopilot behaviour down the road (and the glideslope). Basically it starts happening when slowing down during arrival or approach, I trim the plane once, and it'll keep working the rest of the way.
I hope the RJ received some better logic there and we see it ported back soon :-)
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L Laurreth referenced this topic on
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I finally got a little time to play with the new RJ variants and noticed that the ILS glideslope behavior is pretty solid. So I did some flights with the 146 variants and it seems like whatever you did to make it work properly in the RJ was back-ported to the 146? Because it is a million times better than before.
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There will be an update in the future that back-ports a lot of the improvements in the RJ to the 146. We're a little snowed under at the moment with RJ updates, MSFS 2024 compatibility updates, etc, so it's difficult to give a time frame on that, but it is something we remain committed to doing.
Mark - Just Flight
