Rallylancer122
Well Known Member
Hi All,
I inherited an RV-8 with a nifty little Trutrak EFIS autopilot, coupled to a Garmin 530W. This summer I did a lot of work to the plane, including hunting down and installing an elusive Arinc converter so the nav side of the 530 would talk to the efis, as well as updating the efis software and GNS530W software.
For the most part, everything seems to work. The autopilot flies the plane nicely. When I put a waypoint into the 530, it flies the plane there no problem. When I load an approach with a few fixes it flies it fine, including the turns as plotted on the 530W (doesn't overshoot). It appears to be taking steering commands.
The problem comes when it gets lined up on final. For some reason, it won't fly the vertical portion of the approach. In fact, the autopilot doesn't even seem to recognize it's on approach. I doesn't give me any of the GPSS or GPSV flags. It doesn't pop up the glideslope bar either. The 530 appears to be in Approach mode, but the autopilot is continuing to just fly waypoints.
Am I missing something here? The trutrak manual available for download is vague at best. Does anybody have any better instructions on how to set this up?
Another issue that popped up came when I tried to fly an ILS. When I setup the ILS in the 530 the EFIS seemed to have trouble switching to VLOC navigation. I played with both a bit and finally got it to recognize the VLOC signal. It tracked the localizer nicely (you have to hand fly this, the autopilot won't), and when I hit the outer marker the glideslope bar popped up and worked as expected. However the problem came when I broke off and went around again for another LPV. The EFIS didn't seem to want to get out of VLOC nav. I could get the autopilot to fly the plane, but it would no longer track a GPS course. Even if I just put another airport in as the direct to waypoint on the GPS, the HSI needle would swing, but the autopilot wouldn't fly to the new heading. Finally I cycled the power and that got it to work again, but what the heck?
530's aren't rocket science, and the Trutrak efis strikes me as relatively simple. Which is why I'm a little concerned I may have a problem. I hope I'm just missing something. Thanks!
DEM
I inherited an RV-8 with a nifty little Trutrak EFIS autopilot, coupled to a Garmin 530W. This summer I did a lot of work to the plane, including hunting down and installing an elusive Arinc converter so the nav side of the 530 would talk to the efis, as well as updating the efis software and GNS530W software.
For the most part, everything seems to work. The autopilot flies the plane nicely. When I put a waypoint into the 530, it flies the plane there no problem. When I load an approach with a few fixes it flies it fine, including the turns as plotted on the 530W (doesn't overshoot). It appears to be taking steering commands.
The problem comes when it gets lined up on final. For some reason, it won't fly the vertical portion of the approach. In fact, the autopilot doesn't even seem to recognize it's on approach. I doesn't give me any of the GPSS or GPSV flags. It doesn't pop up the glideslope bar either. The 530 appears to be in Approach mode, but the autopilot is continuing to just fly waypoints.
Am I missing something here? The trutrak manual available for download is vague at best. Does anybody have any better instructions on how to set this up?
Another issue that popped up came when I tried to fly an ILS. When I setup the ILS in the 530 the EFIS seemed to have trouble switching to VLOC navigation. I played with both a bit and finally got it to recognize the VLOC signal. It tracked the localizer nicely (you have to hand fly this, the autopilot won't), and when I hit the outer marker the glideslope bar popped up and worked as expected. However the problem came when I broke off and went around again for another LPV. The EFIS didn't seem to want to get out of VLOC nav. I could get the autopilot to fly the plane, but it would no longer track a GPS course. Even if I just put another airport in as the direct to waypoint on the GPS, the HSI needle would swing, but the autopilot wouldn't fly to the new heading. Finally I cycled the power and that got it to work again, but what the heck?
530's aren't rocket science, and the Trutrak efis strikes me as relatively simple. Which is why I'm a little concerned I may have a problem. I hope I'm just missing something. Thanks!
DEM