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Autopilot : How to Set Altitude in PA-46 Malibu Mirage

By flight3lfsim

Warning !!! This guide is not intended for real flight operations, nor accurate enough, but definetly for flight simulation Entertainement in Flight Sim World.
I've choosen arbitrary FL : 5000 ft / 10000 ft (FL 100) / 15000 ft (FL 150), which doesn't complies with Flight Level vertical separation rules. This is only a simple training with three levels and a 5000 ft gap between them.
Hope in helping you to understand by practising on your own.

Its purpose is only to bring a step by step walkthrough, for discovering and better understanding on how to define an Altitude SetPoint on the default PA-46 Malibu Mirage Autopilot using a pre loaded flight plan in the GPS (this requirement is not covered here, the creation of Flight Plan is a basic step inside FSW, starting a free flight)

Enjoy flying with the PA-46 Malibu Mirage in Flight Sim World

WARNING !!!!

*** Updated on 09/26/2017 ***

About Data Entry Knob :

after re reading comments, it appear i've forget one aspect of using Data Knob Entry, as stated by @kitty4427, thanks to him,
one important thing is that you can do a left click on this button, which make it switch from thousands to hundred, or hundred to thousands, data entry for the Altitude value.
So if you are in the hundreds mode and would set a VS value, you'll have to ensure to coming back to thousands mode data entry, with left click again, to see effective VS value increase or decrease.

Award

Created by

flight3lfsim
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Category: Gameplay Basics, Secrets, Walkthroughs

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

27 May, 2017 @ 6:13am

26 Sep, 2017 @ 5:35am

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Guide Index

Overview

Starting Flight

Activate Flight Plan

Climb manually to Altitude after Take-Off

Enter and Activate Altitude SetPoint

Set Vertical Speed

New Altitude SetPoint

Notice Mixture adjustment

Increase VS

Automatic Level Off and Stabilize

Setting a new Altitude for Descent

Approaching destination

Manual Landing at EGLL by night

Comments

Starting Flight

At first you'll have to create a flight plan through the free flight section. This Flight Plan will be automatically inserted in the GPS.

The goal of the first steps is, on your own, to level your aircraft at a choosen altitude and stabilize by leveling off.
First condition of this guide, don't set in advance anything else but what you're adviced.
Let's go flying
Observe and adjust your climb rate

Activate Flight Plan

Click on CDI button on the lower left of the GPS
The GPS display the "GPS" value, which confirm that CDI Mode is activated
Activate both NAV Mode on Autopilot by clicking on NAV button on the Autopilot and by switching ON the Autopilot with the button located above the Attitude Instrument
Confirm that NAV Mode is activated by reading "NAV" on the two Autopilot displays

Climb manually to Altitude after Take-Off

To follow this guide, after Take-Off, you'll have to climb manually to a first pre defined Altitude. Doing so, will give you the ability to go through all steps with no stress until you don't need to reference this guide.

Up to you ... Climb at, let say, 5000 ft
Before going further, you'll have to level off at 5000 ft, using the pitch trim commands available in Flight Sim World, with either keyboard or joystick button assignment. The VSI (Vertical Speed Indicator) would be horizontal and stable with small adjustments on the pitch
Now you're stable at 5000 ft. You can go forward

Enter and Activate Altitude SetPoint

Your aircraft is stable enough to let you easily preset an Altitude and then trigger a level change

Click on the ALT button on the bottom left of the Altitude Controller Instrument
In order to enter choosen altitude, you'll have, at first, to activate DATA Entry by pressing the DTA button
Enter the Altitude, in our case 10000 ft (or FL 100) using the mouse scroll wheel over the right knob. Activate the ALT Mode on the Autopilot
Confirm the Altitude setting by pressing a second time the DTA button
The Altitude is set and the Autopilot will automatically engage to climb to Altitude

Set Vertical Speed

Activate VS target for Data Entry clicking on VS button
Enable Data Entry clicking on DTA button
Our VS Target is 700 ft/mn which is set with right knob and displayed as "+7"
Click one more time on DTA button to confirm Data Entry. The Climb Rate is following what you've previously set. Don't forget to click on VS button one more time, to avoid VS mode to take the step on the ALT target mode.

New Altitude SetPoint

Enter 15000 ft with the right knob, for new target Altitude (example: goal fixed by ATC) and press DTA button
Aircraft is climbing to Altitude set previously
1. Target Altitude yellow mark
2. Current Altitude green mark
3. Cabin Altitude red mark

Notice Mixture adjustment

When moving from one level to another, the Mixture has to be tuned regulary. Helped by the FF Instrument (Fuel Flow) you'll have to move slowly the Mixture Lever watching the FF Instrument Needle and find the Mixture Lever position where the Needle is on its peak (Max value before starting to decrease). This will do the same as when you press CTRL + X when alert is displayed on FSW UI

Increase VS

In order to climb faster you can increase the VS (Vertical Speed) to a higher rate. Let say 1200 ft/mn, using :
1. DTA button at first to activate Data Entry
2. Right Knob to increase or decrease values
3. And DTA at the end to confirm Data Entry plus VS button again to allow ALT Target mode operation
The VS is set to 1200 ft and the aircraft is increasing hits climb rate. Remember to adjust Power Thrust with Throttle according to this specific aircraft references

Automatic Level Off and Stabilize

Whatch the increasing Altitude with a constant rate while monitoring the Attitude Instrument that confirm, in our case by night, that we are not flying upside down
The Instrument managing the Altitude is automatically decreasing the Climb Rate while approaching the target Altitude
We reach FL 150, the aircraft will now perform adjustments
Small decreasing ...
Small increasing ...
Stabilized at target Altitude. You're able to set VS to 0, if needed, with the right knob and click on the VS button to disable it

Setting a new Altitude for Descent

In order to set the aircraft for the approach, we need to reach a lower Altitude. Here, set 3000 ft with a 1000 ft negative Climb Rate (-1000 ft/mn for VS) diplayed as "-10" and also 1 DOWN on the VSI (x1000)
Target Altitude and Climb Rate set as required

Approaching destination

Manual Landing at EGLL by night

8 Comments

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who moved the half track 24 Nov, 2017 @ 2:40pm

Recently got FSW and really liking the PA-46 Malibu Mirage and this helped me alot! Great guide and very helpful for newbies like me. Thanks!

carlosmgonzalezarias 22 Aug, 2017 @ 5:40pm

Thank you!!!

Tanvaras 12 Jun, 2017 @ 1:15am

Very well written and laid out.

TextRich 4 Jun, 2017 @ 11:58am

Thank you for taking the time to produce an exhaustive autopilot guide for an aircraft that is still in Early Access, flight3lfsim.

flight3lfsim [author] 2 Jun, 2017 @ 3:21pm

You're right, you have the ability to set the Altitude before takeoff. This guide will only show the way to set it while in flight, helping in practice.

Indeed, it's a better way to reduce VS to 0 at the moment you're reaching the Altitude, i was showing that way at the end of the section Automatic Level Off and Stabilize which doesn't prevent automatic leveling off. I will add to also click on the VS button to disable it.

kitty4427 30 May, 2017 @ 7:05pm

I've got it working now. You can set the altitude while still on the ground, too.

Something strange happened though. When approaching the target altitude, it started leveling off, and then decided not to level off and went back to the VS which I had set. I then set the VS to negative to go back to my target altitude, and then it levelled off just fine.

flight3lfsim [author] 30 May, 2017 @ 4:20am

For Altitude Selector,
you'll have to get the same conditions as in this screenshot (link updated)
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/775029151255070591/A6B730065EF41AA587945F606B61696171B1D003/

For the VS i've just rework on screenshots and text to clarify the VS Section in this guide

Let me know if any trouble to achieve this

kitty4427 29 May, 2017 @ 8:31pm

Just tried this on my laptop and had a couple of issues...

1) The altitude selector is only going up to 900.
2) VS isn't changing when I turn the knob (yes, I turned on data entry).

Any ideas why?

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