Hi all!

Pretty often after engaging A/P 1 or 2, the helo starts cruising at around 170kts in 9 ft alt with around 40 degress pitch down. No chance to recover, even if u set alt+spd to higher/lower values or try to engage hover-hold. In effect, the A/P is rather useless ;( ...or did I something wrong? I know there are certain limitations in the flight envelope regarding atmospheric conditions, could it be the reason (I tried AZR 3.0 wich is quite rocky)?
Does anyone experience the same and knows a workaround?

Greets,
Lobo

My "workaround" would be don't use it, period!

Its grossly inaccurate, I don't believe the real Longbow has anything like it and is definitely a crutch.

Probably not what you're hoping to hear, sorry!

I agree that it is best not to use it, but that said, I don't recall the behavior that you observe. The 'default' settings for the AP seem to be about 100 knots/100 feet AGL, and as you say the speed (AND ALTITUDE) can be modified with the appropriate key combination. AP seems to work pretty well for me, sometimes pulling out of nearly impossible situations, but sometimes NOT when a big mountain comes up.

Hover hold is similarly unreliable. It is pretty sensitive to joystick noise/drift and will sometimes turn itself off unexpectedly.

Both have their uses, like when checking the NAV map in flight as you cannot PAUSE in Multiplayer mode as you can in SINGLE.

Recluse

Thats one of the main fixes in the 209 patch.

I stay away from autopilot altogether. You gain more experience by flying yourself rather than relying on AP, and while its difficult this way, it certainly does help down the road when you lose autopilot entirely.

@Homer: prob. best advice , nonetheless, the real LB has a sophisticated A/P like every modern helo.

@Recluse: I agree, sometimes it pulls u out of a hopeless, sometimes it doesn't!

To fix the drift/noise while hovering you may setup a stick-deadzone in the options. I use USB, don't even need a deadzone...

Thx all for replies,
\Lobo

sry, for adding another post below me!

I think I figured out now a bit more:

A/P-reliability seems to be related to loadout (weights&balance) and rate of elevation-shifts of terrain.
It seems reliable when the A/P doesn't have to overtorque all the time in order to maintain flight-profile. So when you are heavy, you may not be able to use A/P, as it overtorques sometimes even in level flight.
In the mission builder you can set your waypoints according to terrain profile (e.g. "along the valleys"), so you won't have too much drastic changes in elevation. Also on the first ingress part it is not neccessary to setup a NOE profile for the first waypoints.
However, if the waypoints are set wisely, the A/P can fly rather accurately and doesn't crash.

Greets,
\Lobo

The AP never crashes the aircraft. There is an unfortunate bug with the AP.
When it controls the aircraft it won't crash the aircraft into a hillside (even if it looks like it). That autopilot can fly 100kts at 60ft. and come up against a hillside and the altitude will drop instantaneously to 9ft and your aircraft will be practicaly inside the mountain while the AP keep on trying to add more speed and altitude by over-torquing the engines. With a tail-fail sometimes the AP can fly the aircraft while you can't.

I meant the AP flies the aircraft in a more scripted way. If you let the AP fly a healthy helo it won't crash into a mountain side, but if you flew the same path you will.
I have never seen the AP crash a helo with only light damage. It can easily fly on one engine, allmost stall the blades and go down to 9ft but it won't crash into a hill even if the rpm is low and it actually does'nt gain any lift.
When you have multiple and moderate to critical damage anything can happen.
Just saying the AP flightmodel is mostly scripted in LB2.

As much as it pains me, I agree with Franze on AP use.

I only use it if I have something else that needs my attention on the trip home.

But I always take it back before it gets to the FARP, as two players with AP will collide in the same place. Done it many times to convince me not to use it there.