Pete491

There is another way to do this that will capture the LOC much better with this airplane. While in HDG and ALT hold Activate Vectors on your approach. Change to GPS mode. Vector yourself or controller instructions to an intercept heading to LOC with HDG. Just before intercept select NAV(GPS). I found that the AP will capture the LOC much more aggressively while in NAV(GPS) Just before FAF select VLOC then APR. Works every time. Note that if your airspeed is too high you will not descend on the GS. Shoot for 150 when you intercept the GS then drop gear and lower speed. Try it.

I have noticed this also. It is not very aggressive when intercepting the LOC and will fly through it then gradually intercept from the other side. I don't think there is a way to change this. It will do the job in the end so I just let it do it's thing.

Guys, Here's what I found works best for me with this airplane. Activate approach, set up LOC intercept in HDG with ALT hold, when receiving LOC select NAV, when receiving GS select APR. Or just wait until both LOC and GS is received then select APR. Works every time. If I set up LOC intercept in HDG with ALT hold then select APR before LOC the A/P will change from APR to APR/ARM when LOC is received and HDG will go off. A/P will turn to intercept. All looks good but A/P will not descend on GS unless I turn off APR and then turn back on. BTW I love this airplane. I think it is much better than the TBM850 or the PA46T.

Guys, I think I found the problem. I have been selecting APP on the AP too early. If I wait until I get a good LOC and GS indication to select APP it works every time. I flew about ten approaches trying different variations and confirmed this. I also found that some approaches get LOC and GS miles from the FAF and some not until just before the FAF. I think I'm good. Thanks!!

Bert, I have noticed that the system will turn off HDG automatically if APP is going to work. I started doing it manually to see if that does the trick. Gregg, Maybe I have been selecting APP too early sometimes. I'll try waiting until I get a good GS indication. Thanks!!

Guys, I have been flying different airplanes with the RXP530 for quite a while. You'd think I would have this down by now. But, about a third of the time when I initiate an ILS the A/P fails to capture the GS. I think I have everything set up as it should be. Here's how I do it. When I get close and start to be vectored I switch to HDG. Then I go into the 530 and activate the approach. I switch the 530 to VLOC. I select APR on the A/P. When I get close to the LOC I switch off HDG and the A/P flys the approach most of the time. About a third of the time I get nothing. The plane sails past the GS and I have to fly a visual. There is something I am missing. Help.

I found out what the problem was. It was a memory problem. I solved it by adding 8 more GB to have 16GB. I have never had a program do something like this before. Usually you will get some kind of out of memory error if you have a memory problem. In this case when I had a lot of applications running some of the functions of the 850 just stopped working. It happened about 60% of the time. Since I added the memory everything has worked perfectly.

More on this issue. I have found that if I am running a VA program the A/P will not work either in HDG or GPS mode. It does work in ALT. One of the VA's I belong to is MEC (Mirage Virtual Charters). The monitoring program you run for them is called VAFS. If this is running the AP will not work. I thought that maybe this was a fluke but I found out that if I am flying a flight for Pilot's Edge the same thing happens. If I am running their program no AP in HDG or GPS. I use the GNS 530. It's a mystery!

Very strange autopilot issue. Occasionally when I turn the autopilot on it will not respond to NAV or HDG. ALT works fine. This has happened three times out of maybe 50 flights. Not a huge problem but it's impossible to continue a Vatsim flight. It seems to happen mostly if the system is under a load from a scenery add-on or other programs running. Anyone else had this problem?

An update to this issue. Mindstar has contacted me and is going to set up a remote session to help me get the 530 installed.

Update to this issue. Things are looking better. Mindstar has contacted me and is going to set up a remote session to get the 530 installed.

Here's an update to my experience. I had not had a response by Monday afternoon so I sent another e-mail. No response two days later so I called the number listed. Was told that the person answering that the tech guy that could help me was not answering the phone. Ok, I left my name & number. No response. Called the next day and was told again that the person that was responsible for tech support could not be contacted. Unbelievable. I sent an e-mail today asking for a refund. Very dissapointing.

Well I went ahead and bought the Mindstar unit a week ago thinking that having a data base that could be updated would be great and that the LPV/LNAV functionality would come later. I immediately had an error with the install. No big deal. Stuff happens. I checked the Mindstar web site saw no forum or any way to get support except via e-mail. So I sent an e-mail describing my problem. This was last Friday. I had not had a response by Monday afternoon so I sent another e-mail. No response two days later so I called the number listed. Was told that the person answering that the tech guy that could help me was not answering the phone. Ok, I left my name & number. No response. Called the next day and was told again that the person that was responsible for tech support could not be contacted. Unbeleivable. I sent an e-mail today asking for a refund. Very dissapointing.

Guys, Having an up to date data base is important to me so I decided to replace my Reality 530 with Mindstar. Bought it yesterday and kicked off the install. All looked good but at the end of the install I received a "Unable to install CANCEL\gauges\gaugemapmpi.bin". I manually kicked off the "Activate Flight Simulator Add-On" and received a "The add-on software for MSFX is not installed properly". I ran the install and the register programs as Administrator. I deinstalled and reinstalled with same result. I ran the install and register program as Administrator. Anyone else have this problem? I sent an e-mail to Mindstar. No response yet. Thanks!

Thanks for the reply Todd. I just finished some research on the Mindstar product and see that it dos not do LPV/LNAV approaches. That's a deal breaker for me. If they add that functionality I'll buy it. An up to date data base is important to me. The data base for the Reality 530 that I have is missing lots of STARS, SIDS, fixes. I'll watch their site for updates. Pete