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Skyview Autopilot vs. Foreflight holding pattern

riseric

riseric

Well Known Member
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This is also posted on Dynon's forum, with no replies yet.

Recently, fooling around on a VFR flight, I created a holding pattern at a waypoint part of a routing in Foreflight and pushed it to Skyview while Autopilot engaged.
The holding pattern appeared correctly on the Skyview map and the Autopilot executed perfectly the Offset entry and the first orbit.
Then it resumed the flight plan, moving to the next waypoint, not repeating the orbit.
Afterwards, I searched Foreflight's and Dynon's settings, and its operating manual but didn't find a way to stay in the hold while on autopilot.
The only option maybe is to set "OBS mode" at the waypoint, suspending the flight plan ??? (Will try on next flight).
 Or is this feature (remaining in the holding pattern) only possible from a IFR navigator such as Garmin or Avidyne ??


I'm aware that Skyview and Foreflight are not IFR certified.

Currently in the process of obtaining the IFR rating and considering IFR navigator options.
 
Last edited:
riseric said:
Merci Denis !! :) We will talk !!


Thanks Bob, but will the A/P stay in the hold after the first orbit?
Did you or anyone else try this?
Bad weather here for a few days but I will check it on my next flight.
Click to expand...

Well, I have a different system, 420W and Trio Pro, (which is why I said ‘a common way’) but that’s exactly how it works. If there’s a hold in the flight program, the autopilot does one turn and then off to the next waypoint. If I push OBS while in the hold, the autopilot will keep it in the hold until I push OBS again. This is all software. A much older version of the 420 software behaved differently. I think iirc it automatically put you in the hold, you had to push OBS to exit.
 
OBS mode doesn't keep the airplane in the hold

riseric said:
Thanks Bob, but will the A/P stay in the hold after the first orbit?
Did you or anyone else try this?
Bad weather here for a few days but I will check it on my next flight.
Click to expand...

Again, I understand that Foreflight is NOT an IFR navigator.
I was exploring Skyview's Autopilot behaviour.

So I went out and fed Skyview with a Foreflight flight plan including a hold at a waypoint (TAVMA).
The Autopilot flew to TAVMA and entered the holding pattern perfectly (offset entry).
After (re)-passing TAVMA starting the first orbit, I activated the OBS mode (in Skyview's FLT PLN) at TAVMA that's at the end of the "HOLD LOC" points, hoping that suspending the rest of the flight plan would keep the Autopilot in the orbit.
Nope, the Autopilot cleared all the "HOLD LOC" points terminating the hold and turned direct to TAVMA then just flew through it continuing straight ahead.

Tried it again from scratch, but activated the OBS mode at TAVMA just before the "HOLD LOC" points.
No joy, the "HOLD LOC" points were blanked and the Autopilot just flew straight past TAVMA.

On the third try, without activating OBS mode, I let the Autopilot enter the hold, fly the first orbit until the inbound track then selected TAVMA just before the first "HOLD LOC" points and pushed DIRECT.
Passing TAVMA, the orbit was initiated again.

Conclusion:
It's possible to remain in the holding pattern by manually (re)-selecting the holding waypoint at the start of the "HOLD LOC" points while inbound at the end of the orbit and ordering "DIRECT".
I presume (didn't test further) that repeating this at each inbound leg, would keep repeating the orbit.

For those that use an IFR navigator with Skyview on A/P, how does it behave if you program a hold?
Interested to know since I will be upgrading my panel soon.
 
I don’t think it matters what autopilot you have, the behavior is driven by the navigator.
As Bob said before GNS navigators you have to use OBS.
My GTN will stay in the hold and automatically SUSP and go around in circles until you unsuspend.
Caveat:
For some reason here the published holds on most of the RNPs I fly aren’t coded into the approach so if I want to hold as per the published procedure I have to quickly enter the hold as per the procedure.
It may well be that if the hold is already part of the procedure then you may have to SUSP manually to do more than one lap.
 
When you create a flight plan in Foreflight with a hold or a teardrop entry, then upload to Skyview, what skyview gets is a the hold or teardrop as a number of short straight segments as legs to create the desired flightpath. The autopilot follows the legs in sequence, exiting the pattern into the next leg. The Skyview navigator does not know what a hold is.

Sorry to say, you need an IFR navigator to do what you are trying to do.
 
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