Originally Posted by
Well Travelled Nav
On the OCU it was demonstrated that the autopilot can fly much smoother than any pilot
Shall I ? Why not. While I'm at it . . .. . . .
You'll know from the OCU (Trg Flt for the purists out there) that the autopilot comprises of an Alt lock, an IAS lock and a Mach lock.
Unlike your modern jets which have far superior autopilots whereby you can programme in your cleared height, and the thing takes you up there as well as adjusting the power for you, the VC10 requires a PILOT input to make all that happen.
So, you can pitch the aircraft using the pitch wheels and turn it using the manual control (or the heading bug if HDG mode selected). Until the nav key is engaged, that's how the turns will be done and until you are in the cruise the aircraft will be levelled on the pitch wheels.
More often than not it's the pilot inputs in the VC10 at critical stages of flight you'll be noticing.
And above all, the autopilot will only perform as well as the person operating it. It's not a magic box you know . ..
