on auto pilot and climbing to 6000’ my auto pilot altitude kept dropping back to present altitude and after several tries to recapture the alt vs I then lost the gps and have not regain the gps even after recycling. Has anyone had this problem
Ronald:
Sorry you’re having trouble. I’m sure a lot of folks could give you some guidance if you can provide a lot more information - your description is pretty minimal for problems with both the autopilot AND GPS.
What aircraft equipment do you have, including autopilot and GPS model numbers?
What do you mean by ‘recapture the ALT VS’?
What do you mean by ‘lost the GPS’?
Please describe specific actions you took (button pushing) and the indications of trouble (what was displayed, what the aircraft did) in sequence.
It seems pretty unlikely that both the autopilot and GPS would fail simultaneously unless there is some electrical problem…were electrical indications normal?
So long,
Tim
I have a SR22 centennial which has garmin 430’s and i’m not sure of type or brand of auto pilot is in the plane and I have to drove 20 miles to the hanger to get more info. however I had my arrival airport loaded in the garmins before takeoff and everything was fine. after takeoff and climbing I set altitude at 6000’ and proceeded to set the auto pilot which did take hold however the altitude bug returned to present altitude, after several tries to reset altitude to 6000’ the gps failed. I did not try any other settings such as hdg. on the autopilot instead I felt it would be wiser to turn around and head home while visual day light was still there and no fuses were blown. It was a very cold day -3 and this was just a joy ride and not to be a cold trouble shooting day. I shut down and refueled and fired up again and still the GPS shows the two red cross hairs on the hsi and no moving map and the garmins have no clue as to where they are in the world, perhaps the problem is in the garmins. I’m new to this aviation world with 133 hours and less then a year. Thanks for your time. I also tried to load the location in nav 2 and the same result Gps Failed
Ron,
What you really need to do is get some time with an instructor who can show you how to use what’s in the plane. I get the impression from your post that you are simply overwhelmed by the airplane (not hard to be overwhelmed if you are new to aviation and have a total of 133 hours). I urge you to call Matt McDaniel who lives in your area and set up some intensive training. His number is 414 339 4990.
New technology avionics are fantastic but if not set up properly and fully understood they can really bite - autopilots especially.
In reply to:
I have a SR22 centennial which has garmin 430’s and i’m not sure of type or brand of auto pilot is in the plane and I have to drove 20 miles to the hanger to get more info.
centenniel … 55X I would think.
In reply to:
after takeoff and climbing I set altitude at 6000’ and proceeded to set the auto pilot which did take hold however the altitude bug returned to present altitude
I’ve managed to do that a couple of times. I found it’s easy when you are adjusting altitude to PRESS the right hand knob on the PFD after dialling in the altitude I wanted, which results in resetting it to current altitude. I don’t know of anything you can press on the STEC autopilot itself which would change the altitude on the PFD, are you sure you didn’t hit that right hand knob on the PFD by mistake?
I believe that you must have one roll mode (HGD or NAV) selected on the autopilot before you can engage the altitude mode, I’m not sure from your post if you did that or not.
GPS failure does sound odd. Can you remember anything else about any messages you received and what screen they showed on?
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I felt it would be wiser to turn around and head home while visual day light
good piloting decision.
If the GPSes aren’t finding themselves you are definitely going to get a red X all over the HSI, you will also get them if you don’t have a flight plan loaded. It would be a little odd for both GPS units to fail and be unable to reset and locate themselves since they are independent units on independent antennae. It may be that the connection to your PFD from the garmins has failed.
A couple of suggestions. The training course at UND is pretty good, but doesn’t teach a whole lot about the avionics in the plane, certainly not how to make the most use of them, nor how to recognize and cope with failures. There are some very good cirrus-rated instructors around who do concentrate on the avionics in the plane and can really teach a pilot to get the most out of them, you might want to track one down and hook up a few hours.
Secondly - as you’re now a cirrus owner, have you thought of joining COPA and posting on the members board, they get read a lot more and you may find faster and better advice about debugging this problem over there. If you bought the plane from the factory … you should have a code to give an introduction to COPA
Congratulations on the purchase of your plane. Please post any other details you think of and hopefully someone can lead you to getting this problem fixed.
When I first got my PFD-equipped SR22, I had a problem similar to the one you describe with the altitude.
I would preselect the altitude on the PFD and press ALT and VS on the autopilot, to tell it to climb to the preselected altitude. When I did this, the plane would pitch down abruptly and it would level off at the current altitude. On the PFD, the selected altitude would be set to the current altitude instead of what I had dialed in.
In my case, the problem was caused by the pilot. When I was pressing ALT and VS on the autopilot, I was doing it the same way as when pressing HDG-NAV: first press and hold one button (ALT) and then press the other (VS). This does not work – you have to press ALT and VS at the same time. When you press ALT without VS, it sets the altitude preselect to the current altitude. This is a feature, not a bug.
I suspect your Garmin problem is a different problem.
And I have to second what others have said – get additional training and you’ll be glad you did. Not only will your flying be safer, it will be easier. One of the things a good instructor can show you is how to minimize your workload in the cockpit.
Welcome to COPA and the wonderful world of Cirrus ownership!
-Mike
I’m one step ahead I do have an instructor who is very good and will go over this with him however as you know the more people you poll the more info you get and the more you learn. and this has and is a ongoing study and I have come a long way since April 15 2003 and I just love to fly just don’t like the weird bugs that come along once and a while. I’m also in the first quarter of my IFR training. once again thanks for your time
I have used the auto pilot sevral times and set it up the same way. I had the altitude bug set to 6000’ before take off and on the other tries I only pressed the button to the right only to set the altitude and proceed to hit alt / vs which is of course after I have hit nav 2 times. I have also tried to set up a waypoint on the garmins on the ground and there is no response other Gps fail and or no Raim and I’m a copa member just started this in the wrong forum.
In reply to:
When you press ALT without VS, it sets the altitude preselect to the current altitude. This is a feature, not a bug.
ah ok so I’m entirely wrong and there IS a way to affect the PFD altitude select from the A/P, I didn’t know that. I keep messing up by pressing the right-hand PFD knob instead of turning it and resetting myself back to current altitude. Same effect, different pilot error.
You must engage either HDG or NAV before altitude options will capture. To simply climb, set desired rate of climb on the PFD, then press VS. To climb at a specified rate to a specific altitude, set desired rate of climb and the altitude on PFD, then press and hold VS until you’ve also pressed ALT. The autopilot manual says press ALT and VS simultaneously, but that’s a bit hard to do consistently. My way (actually UND Aerospace’s way) is easier to get right. Remember you can’t press ALT first; if you do, the autopilot will capture present altitude and you’ll lose the setting you entered on the PFD.
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press and hold VS until you’ve also pressed ALT…
Another way to think of it is to consider the VS as a ‘shift’ key when selecting ALT/VS - better to think of VS/ALT. Similarly, regarding the HDG button as a ‘shift’ key when selecting HDG/NAV or HDG/NAV/NAV works well.
- Mike.
ah… this works great EXCEPT:
remember, (perhaps this is mostly memo to self as ive made this mistake more than once),
if you’ve set the ALT bug to your DH and perform missed, if you havent reset ALT bug and hit VS then ALT … well, im glad ive been practicing in VFR conditions.
in other words, VS seems to be equally happy to give you +500fpm or -500fpm if you dont pay attention!
In reply to:
if you’ve set the ALT bug to your DH and perform missed, if you havent reset ALT bug and hit VS then ALT … well, im glad ive been practicing in VFR conditions.
in other words, VS seems to be equally happy to give you +500fpm or -500fpm if you dont pay attention!
John,
Great point.
We need to ALWAYS look at what’s in the altitude preselect and VSR preselect (PFD pilots) before we ask the pitch control section of the autopilot to do anything!
- Mike.