How does Blenheim autopilot really work?

[lwalter]

I'm new to IL2 Cliffs of Dover.

I read the flashcards and Chuck's guide about how to do a high-level bombing. There's one part about activating the autopilot.

It says to set the gyro to 0 if I want the bomber to continue on the current course.

But when I do that, the Blenheim always want to turn to heading 130. Whatever I try to do, changing the course, changing the gyro, the Blenheim always wants to turn to align on heading 130, instead of 0 as explained in the documentation.

I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong here.

 

[56RAF_Stickz]

Welcome,

without knowing the exact actions sequence you are taking, here is how it should work. Turn your blennie (or wellington) onto the heading you wish to follow, set the directional gyro to zero (+/- 2 or3 degrees is close enough) then engage course follow mode. Your aircraft should then follow the direction you were heading. After that you change course by either adjusting the directional gyro or the auto pilot course setting heading (cannot remember its key name). Where it can go wrong is if you engage it, disengage it at some point and change course heading manually - then try and re-engage it.

If you are trying to run a single mission where you have air spawned and it has a pre-planned route for your plane it will attempt to turn to that if 0 is set on DG and apply autopilot(or at least it does on mine) which maybe what is happening to you from your description. So if the mission has a route of 130degrees set for you, it will turn to follow that I believe so you need to offset by the 130deg.

Hope this helps.

[lwalter]

Thanks for your answer!

Yes, I was doing the second single mission in the list (don't remember it's name).

So you mean that when there's a preplanned route in the mission, you have to set the directional gyro to that route and not to 0?

Here's what the Blenheim tries to do: it turns by what you set on directional gyro minus 130. If I set it to 130, it stays on my current path.

It's good to know, but it's still very weird to me.

 

[palker4]

20 minutes ago, lwalter said:

Thanks for your answer!

Yes, I was doing the second single mission in the list (don't remember it's name).

So you mean that when there's a preplanned route in the mission, you have to set the directional gyro to that route and not to 0?

Here's what the Blenheim tries to do: it turns by what you set on directional gyro minus 130. If I set it to 130, it stays on my current path.

It's good to know, but it's still very weird to me.

 

That is how it is supposed to work. If you want to fly a heading then first set the gyro to match your magnetic compass heading then set the desired course with

course setter.  Turn your plane to desired heading make sure that gyro and autopilot course are aligned and then hit the course automat/mode 22. At least this is how it works in the German planes where you can see all the settings well. Leaving the directional gyro at 0 along with the autopilot heading is a shortcut.

[lwalter]

Thanks palker4.

I'll try what you suggest.

[56RAF_Stickz]

16 hours ago, lwalter said:

So you mean that when there's a preplanned route in the mission, you have to set the directional gyro to that route and not to 0?

Here's what the Blenheim tries to do: it turns by what you set on directional gyro minus 130. If I set it to 130, it stays on my current path.

It's good to know, but it's still very weird to me.

The blennie and in game wellington never had an auto pilot so the directional gyro was co-opted to be able to bomb and provide autopilot by the developers. But when you airspawn the compass and directional gyro are set to your heading - usually set in the mission editor. It uses this inital setting as 0 for the auto pilot which is why you see the offset. Spawn in and immediately go into auto pilot plane will continue the aircraft heading although the DG will not point to 0 as you have found.

Spawn parked this doesnt happen the DG starts at 0 until pilot adjusts it to whatever they wish. You can then readjust it in flight to 0 hit auto pilot and it continues.

You can get the same disconnect by setting autopilot on, settle on course, turn it off, change course by 90deg, adjust the gyro to 0 and turn it back on, plane then turns back to the old heading.

I would guess perhaps because it was meant to work with the LW autopilot which as Palker says had a gyro course and autopilot course setting(long long time since I used it), meant that for RAF it could go out out of sync. I would guess it has to set the autopilot course to something (presume 0) at mission start and doesnt know what your route or heading will be so sets it to 0 at you initial heading until you tell it otherwise and RAF do not have that control.

[lwalter]

I got it now. Thanks for your explanation 56RAF_Stickz!

[Sokol1]

See in Chuck Owl guides, Blenheim "ghost" autopilot operation - page 68, is need use both Course Setter and Directional Gyro for set the operation.

 

https://www.mudspike.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Chuck-Guide-Il-2-Cliffs-of-Dover-Blenheim-IV.pdf