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Garmin Autopilot Questions

ColoradoSolar

Well Known Member
I installed a G5, GMC 507 and 2 servos (among other bits and pieces) in my 6A and the everything seems to be working fine. But I have 2 questions that I noticed on a recent cross-country.

1. I was in heading mode and it seemed like the AP didn't want to fly the heading I had entered it was off by 3-5 degrees. It could be a wind correction angle because it was off towards the wind but I thought heading mode didn't take wind into account, the heading is where ever the airplane is pointed and the track is where the wind takes you. Do I potentially have a setting wrong (all the setting are the defaults).

2. The AP was holding altitude great the only problem is that I was in the mountains with thermals so my airspeed was all over the place as the AP put the nose up and down to hold altitude so I was working the throttle a lot. Could I have just put the AP in pitch mode and just ride the up/down drafts?

Figured I would ask here first before I bothered g3xpert.
 
G3X HDG Mode

I installed a G5, GMC 507 and 2 servos (among other bits and pieces) in my 6A and the everything seems to be working fine. But I have 2 questions that I noticed on a recent cross-country.

1. I was in heading mode and it seemed like the AP didn't want to fly the heading I had entered it was off by 3-5 degrees. It could be a wind correction angle because it was off towards the wind but I thought heading mode didn't take wind into account, the heading is where ever the airplane is pointed and the track is where the wind takes you. Do I potentially have a setting wrong (all the setting are the defaults).

2. The AP was holding altitude great the only problem is that I was in the mountains with thermals so my airspeed was all over the place as the AP put the nose up and down to hold altitude so I was working the throttle a lot. Could I have just put the AP in pitch mode and just ride the up/down drafts?

Figured I would ask here first before I bothered g3xpert.

Hey Eric,

Just addressing the first question here, this would be a great flight to look at a datalog from. We should be able to see what the flight director is asking for, and what the autopilot is giving it. If you had a datacard in the display during the flight, you will be able to pull the log from that flight to send over to us. If there was not a card in the display, you will need to make a test flight to gather some data for us to take a look at. Please send the log to [email protected].

Thanks,

Justin
 
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