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AF-5600 autopilot issues

V

vas4vans

Active Member
Friend
Hello,

As I mentioned in a couple of other posts, I recently bought an RV-10 with 2xAF-5600, an IFD540 and a Trutrak Vizion 385 AP.

I posted this on the AFS Forum last week but didn't get any responses so I thought I would post it here since a lot of RVers have AFS EFISs.

If I engage the AP by pressing on the AP button on the touch screen or the Engage button on the right EFIS (it is setup to be primarily flown from the right seat), I found that the AP worked fine (and the AP indication on the screen was green).

It seemed like the AP could also be engaged by doing a long press of the CWS button on the stick (I had set the AP to be in HDG/ALT/VS mode). The AP seems to turn on in this case but the AP indication on the screen is yellow (and not green) and the AP does not behave as expected (doesn't hold ALT or follow the HDG bug). Does anyone know the significance of a yellow AP indication on the EFIS screen and if I should be doing anything different to be able to turn it on using the CWS button on the stick.

What I have also found is that when the AP is engaged properly using the touchscreen (indication is green) and the CWS button on the stick is pressed, it initially works as expected in that the servos are released and I can manually operate the stick but when the CWS button is released, the AP indication on the screen turns yellow and the AP starts misbehaving again.

I can't find anything in the Operating Guide so it would be really wonderful if anyone can shed some light on what it means when the AP indication on the screen is yellow.

I also tried calling the AFS phone number and leaving a message but haven't received a call back yet.

Thanks,

Vas
 
Vas, in our previous discussions, I don't think I was clear on which autopilot you have. Mine isn't a TruTrak, exactly....it's an AFS-Pilot (made by TruTrak, but not the same). So, ignore any autopilot advice I might have given you. Mine works a lot differently than yours.

Advanced Flight was pretty good about talking on the phone during my 4500-5400 swap. Don't know if they still are, but it seems to part of their ethos.
 
Last edited:
vas4vans said:
Hello,

As I mentioned in a couple of other posts, I recently bought an RV-10 with 2xAF-5600, an IFD540 and a Trutrak Vizion 385 AP.

I posted this on the AFS Forum last week but didn't get any responses so I thought I would post it here since a lot of RVers have AFS EFISs.

If I engage the AP by pressing on the AP button on the touch screen or the Engage button on the right EFIS (it is setup to be primarily flown from the right seat), I found that the AP worked fine (and the AP indication on the screen was green).

It seemed like the AP could also be engaged by doing a long press of the CWS button on the stick (I had set the AP to be in HDG/ALT/VS mode). The AP seems to turn on in this case but the AP indication on the screen is yellow (and not green) and the AP does not behave as expected (doesn't hold ALT or follow the HDG bug). Does anyone know the significance of a yellow AP indication on the EFIS screen and if I should be doing anything different to be able to turn it on using the CWS button on the stick.

What I have also found is that when the AP is engaged properly using the touchscreen (indication is green) and the CWS button on the stick is pressed, it initially works as expected in that the servos are released and I can manually operate the stick but when the CWS button is released, the AP indication on the screen turns yellow and the AP starts misbehaving again.

I can't find anything in the Operating Guide so it would be really wonderful if anyone can shed some light on what it means when the AP indication on the screen is yellow.

I also tried calling the AFS phone number and leaving a message but haven't received a call back yet.

Thanks,

Vas
Click to expand...

A one second depression and release of cws button engages the AP in track and vertical speed hold mode. If VS is less than 300 FPM it will level off and hold altitude. If you have and AFS (TruTrak) head, you'd be able to change the track using the knob on that. You can then open the AP page on the EFIS, set it up to whatever you want that to do, and engage it from there. Haven't really paid attention to what the colors do. From your description, it's behaving how it's supposed to.

Ed Holyoke
 
Thanks, Ed! I actually contacted Rob Hickman from AFS and he indicated that it was behaving exactly the way you described it (which is the expected behavior).

Vas
 
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