Are you tired of getting phone calls from ATC after busting speed limits? Do you just wish there was a way to set up you flight like that Ronco Chicken cooker ("Set it, and forget it!")? If your piston pusher already has working direction, attitude, and turn indicators coded into the aircraft.cfg, then full autopilot with autothrottle is just a few cfg edits away!
First, the panel. If you have the normal B-K stack like the Cessnas, you already have almost enough, but even if the autopilot is already there, you still won't have autothrottle. I've come up with what I feel to be a good little combination of gauges in a popup that does everything you'll need and a little more:
[WindowXX]
Background_color=128,128,128 //Only black shows up invisible, so this eliminates the need for a background bitmap.
size_mm= 359,300
window_size=0.45 //Adjust this number to fit your needs.
position= 0
visible=0
ident=RADIO_STACK_PANEL
gauge00=Lear_45!Autopilot, 1, 2, 356
gauge01=bendix_king_radio!Bendix-King Radio Nav-Comm 1, 1, 55, 176
gauge02=bendix_king_radio!Bendix-King Radio Nav-Comm 2, 180, 55, 176
gauge03=bendix_king_radio!Bendix-King Radio Xpndr, 180, 165, 176
gauge04=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio ADF, 180, 218, 176
gauge05=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Audio, 180, 263, 176
gauge06=Extra-300!Pitch-Trim, 126, 200, 35
gauge07=Lear_45!Nav GPS Switch, 133, 140, 20
gauge08=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio DME, 180, 120, 176
gauge09=Mooney_Bravo!OMI Lights, 33, 140, 50
gauge10=Beech_Baron!RMI, 1,175,113,113
Personally, I like to fly from the 2D Mini Panel, but shooting an ILS without a modern HSI in front of me makes that impossible. I "fixed" the default mini six-pack by changing the two middle gauges:
[WindowXX]
position=7
size_mm=600,100
//window_size=0.50,0.11 //reduced for 1440x900
window_size=0.675,0.15 //reduced for 1280x1024
//window_size=0.9,0.20 //original
child_3d=1
background_color=0,0,0
ident=MINIPANEL
gauge00=MiniPanel!Airspeed, 0, 0, 100, 100
gauge01=MiniPanel!Turn Coordinator, 100, 0, 100, 100
gauge02=Cessna208!Attitude, 200, 0, 100, 100
gauge03=Cessna208!Horizontal-Indicator,300, 0, 100, 100
gauge04=MiniPanel!Altimeter, 400, 0, 100, 100
gauge05=MiniPanel!Vertical Speed, 500, 0, 100, 100
Now, let's talk about getting that Lear gauge to work. You'll need a fully stocked autopilot section:
[autopilot]
autopilot_available= 1
flight_director_available= 0
default_vertical_speed= 700.0
autothrottle_available= 1
autothrottle_arming_required= 0
autothrottle_max_rpm = 90 //see below
autothrottle_takeoff_ga= 0
pitch_takeoff_ga=8.0
max_pitch=10.0
max_pitch_acceleration=1.0
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt=2.0
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt=1.5
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt_breakpoint=20000.0
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt_breakpoint=28000.0
max_bank=25.0
max_bank_acceleration=1.8
max_bank_velocity=3.00
max_throttle_rate=0.10
nav_proportional_control=9.00
nav_integrator_control=0.25
nav_derivative_control=0.00
nav_integrator_boundary=2.50
nav_derivative_boundary=0.00
gs_proportional_control=9.52
gs_integrator_control=0.26
gs_derivative_control=0.00
gs_integrator_boundary=0.70
gs_derivative_boundary=0.00
yaw_damper_gain = 0.0
OK, about that Max RPM line. That's where things can get a bit "interesting." I finally figured out that on pistons, that line becomes a percentage of the Max Rated RPM taken from the Piston Engine section. On a fixed pitch prop, it's pretty simple. If you set the number to 90%, the autothrottle will raise the throttle until the engine is at 90% until the speed goal is reached. On the ground, that may result in full throttle if the engine won't rev high enough. But on a powerful plane with a fixed speed prop, it won't take much power to put the tachs at "only" 90%. You really won't get much thrust. Even at 100%, you only get marginal power. But, take that number to 101%, and you'll get full power any time that the indicated airspeed is below the target.
So - here's where your preferences come into play. If you just want to run a set-and-forget flight, run your Sim with automixture on, then set the max RPM to 101 and all you have to do is play with the pitch. But if you still like to have a little bit of realism, set it to 90%, work the levers manually until you're in cruise mode, then just use the autothrottle for fine speed control.
One last note... On planes with an abundance of power, you may find that the throttle tends to hunt, constantly revving up and slowing down. This can be fixed by lowering the Max Throttle Rate. The value of "0.10" means that you get 10% throttle movement per second, or ten seconds from idle to max. If you lower that number, you get a slower throttle response, and therefore a reduced tendancy to hunt.
First, the panel. If you have the normal B-K stack like the Cessnas, you already have almost enough, but even if the autopilot is already there, you still won't have autothrottle. I've come up with what I feel to be a good little combination of gauges in a popup that does everything you'll need and a little more:
[WindowXX]
Background_color=128,128,128 //Only black shows up invisible, so this eliminates the need for a background bitmap.
size_mm= 359,300
window_size=0.45 //Adjust this number to fit your needs.
position= 0
visible=0
ident=RADIO_STACK_PANEL
gauge00=Lear_45!Autopilot, 1, 2, 356
gauge01=bendix_king_radio!Bendix-King Radio Nav-Comm 1, 1, 55, 176
gauge02=bendix_king_radio!Bendix-King Radio Nav-Comm 2, 180, 55, 176
gauge03=bendix_king_radio!Bendix-King Radio Xpndr, 180, 165, 176
gauge04=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio ADF, 180, 218, 176
gauge05=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Audio, 180, 263, 176
gauge06=Extra-300!Pitch-Trim, 126, 200, 35
gauge07=Lear_45!Nav GPS Switch, 133, 140, 20
gauge08=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio DME, 180, 120, 176
gauge09=Mooney_Bravo!OMI Lights, 33, 140, 50
gauge10=Beech_Baron!RMI, 1,175,113,113
Personally, I like to fly from the 2D Mini Panel, but shooting an ILS without a modern HSI in front of me makes that impossible. I "fixed" the default mini six-pack by changing the two middle gauges:
[WindowXX]
position=7
size_mm=600,100
//window_size=0.50,0.11 //reduced for 1440x900
window_size=0.675,0.15 //reduced for 1280x1024
//window_size=0.9,0.20 //original
child_3d=1
background_color=0,0,0
ident=MINIPANEL
gauge00=MiniPanel!Airspeed, 0, 0, 100, 100
gauge01=MiniPanel!Turn Coordinator, 100, 0, 100, 100
gauge02=Cessna208!Attitude, 200, 0, 100, 100
gauge03=Cessna208!Horizontal-Indicator,300, 0, 100, 100
gauge04=MiniPanel!Altimeter, 400, 0, 100, 100
gauge05=MiniPanel!Vertical Speed, 500, 0, 100, 100
Now, let's talk about getting that Lear gauge to work. You'll need a fully stocked autopilot section:
[autopilot]
autopilot_available= 1
flight_director_available= 0
default_vertical_speed= 700.0
autothrottle_available= 1
autothrottle_arming_required= 0
autothrottle_max_rpm = 90 //see below
autothrottle_takeoff_ga= 0
pitch_takeoff_ga=8.0
max_pitch=10.0
max_pitch_acceleration=1.0
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt=2.0
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt=1.5
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt_breakpoint=20000.0
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt_breakpoint=28000.0
max_bank=25.0
max_bank_acceleration=1.8
max_bank_velocity=3.00
max_throttle_rate=0.10
nav_proportional_control=9.00
nav_integrator_control=0.25
nav_derivative_control=0.00
nav_integrator_boundary=2.50
nav_derivative_boundary=0.00
gs_proportional_control=9.52
gs_integrator_control=0.26
gs_derivative_control=0.00
gs_integrator_boundary=0.70
gs_derivative_boundary=0.00
yaw_damper_gain = 0.0
OK, about that Max RPM line. That's where things can get a bit "interesting." I finally figured out that on pistons, that line becomes a percentage of the Max Rated RPM taken from the Piston Engine section. On a fixed pitch prop, it's pretty simple. If you set the number to 90%, the autothrottle will raise the throttle until the engine is at 90% until the speed goal is reached. On the ground, that may result in full throttle if the engine won't rev high enough. But on a powerful plane with a fixed speed prop, it won't take much power to put the tachs at "only" 90%. You really won't get much thrust. Even at 100%, you only get marginal power. But, take that number to 101%, and you'll get full power any time that the indicated airspeed is below the target.
So - here's where your preferences come into play. If you just want to run a set-and-forget flight, run your Sim with automixture on, then set the max RPM to 101 and all you have to do is play with the pitch. But if you still like to have a little bit of realism, set it to 90%, work the levers manually until you're in cruise mode, then just use the autothrottle for fine speed control.
One last note... On planes with an abundance of power, you may find that the throttle tends to hunt, constantly revving up and slowing down. This can be fixed by lowering the Max Throttle Rate. The value of "0.10" means that you get 10% throttle movement per second, or ten seconds from idle to max. If you lower that number, you get a slower throttle response, and therefore a reduced tendancy to hunt.