DC-8 AP & other problems

A couple of issues that I found last night that could do with confirming by others.

First was that with the AP holding Alt and Hdg, I found the alt wandering a lot during turns, like by 100's of feet.

Second was that during turns (by hand or AP), this DC-8 is scrubbing massive amounts of speed.

Thirdly is that even with YD on, the turn ball is at the end of its travel in turns, suggesting the need for a lot if rudder. It's not normal to use rudder in an airliner.

The AP overcorrecting in turns is apparently because of pitch acceleration responses - it overshoots the required pitch change.

swisschris wrote: - flap position gauge u/s

As for reverse thrust, extending the ejectors will activate reverse capability, and the visual extension and clamshell doors work very nicely when viewed from the outside!!

flyforever wrote: Can someone confirm that the NAV loc works? I can't seem to make it track a nav. tony

have really problems with AP... up and down over the  desired altitude... 

Hi All, waited for years for a good DC8 and it's here. A few issues need ironing out.

Have read the DC8 Manual a few times now and have floan the DC8 on several flights - she's great to fly but needs some taming. I too have encountered a few issues, mainly with the AP and adjusting the altitude - I have to click on the knob, hold the left key down and drag it across the screen to adjust - but it's only changing by a few hundred feet each time - a real pain if you've got to add  or loose 10k or more.

It's the same for the other knobs that need KTS speed changes, heading, NDB, course and also NAV and COMM changes. I also had a few problems starting all engines following the instruction correctly. Manage to start her up after about 5 attempts so must have been me! Anyway, I'm slowly getting there and many of the issues I originally thought existedhave now gone away. I too lost speed on AP during turns and thought the AP disenguaged by itself - did not press 'Z' or anything like that. GPS/NAV switch is ok for me

 By the way the parking brake is located left of captains seat on the nose wheel steering - took me a while to see this as I could not find instructions in the manual for  his - did a CTRL F too.

My work around has been to back up the original aircraft.cfg and copy the autopilot settings from the default B737 aircraft.cfg and use my GoFlight MCP-Pro, until these issues are resolved. Bob

Fly37, Glad it worked for you, as I said it's good work around till the service pack is released. Bob

Yes the AP needs polishing and tuning. Also, wings at 30k altitude tended to roll up and down in AP. I thought I was the only one but this appears to be a common issue. Thanks for fixing this!