"Beta" Autopilot Feedback?

Hi,

some of you may have already experimented with the alternative Autopilot in the MCP and the FCU, and I think it has reached a point that it may be ready for primetime. Many changes have been made, especially since we put more effort into X-Plane.

To allow easier interaction with that mode, I have added a page to the MCDU and CDU that allows you to enable/disable the Beta AP and also set its parameters. In both FMCs, press MENU twice, then MAINT, AP (or A/P).

As a general note, most flight models will work well with a Pitch value of 30 and a Bank value of 50 (factors). There are some flight models that require much higher settings.

The test procedure for the lateral modes (bank) is to first select a new heading, see how it turns towards it and captures it. If things are too violent, lower the bank value, if too slow, increase it.

For pitch select a vertical speed, 1000 or 2000 ft/min, then see how fast it gets there and set factor accordingly.

The next step is to fly an approach in normal approach configuration and see how that works, adjusting factors accordingly.

I might write an automatic test procedure as well, it depends on whether it is necessary.

Airbus builds on www.projectmagenta.com/updates.html
Boeing builds on www.projectmagenta.com/latest.html

The Boeing even number versions will be released in the next couple of days.

I am thankful for any feedback you may have about this feature.

Ciao

Enrico

Hello, Enrico.

I have just sent you an email with my findings.

Regards,
Darren Sugden

Hi Darren, would you mind sharing your findings here so others can compare theirs with your findings?

Thanks,
Matt Olieman

Darren wrote: "I hand flew a SID and once the a/c was nicely positioned for the next waypoint dead ahead, I engaged the autopilot and the aircraft violently pitched up and down continuously."

This was with parameters 100 for pitch and 100 for bank.

If you change them to say 30 for pitch and 50 for bank you should see it behave better. I will get it to autotune.

Also, ideally update the FBW with the one in the updates section.

Following Enrico's suggestion to change pitch to 30 and bank to 50, the AP worked very well :-)

I initially kept the values to 100, since these were the numbers suggested if you are using the iFDG Airbus.

However, that didn't work for me but with the new values everything is working fine. The FDE I am using is by Pedro Oliveira.

Thanks, Enrico, for your efforts.

Regards,
Darren

P.S. Enrico, you were right regarding the reason why my a/c was accelerating above 250kts before FL100 - my entries were 8000/250.

P.S. Enrico, you were right regarding the reason why my a/c was accelerating above 250kts before FL100 - my entries were 8000/250.

I made a note to reset that when the FMC is flushed, then it doesn't happen again.

Gentlemen,

The Boeing updates have arrived at PM (#486). You can start testing.

JWS