I ('cos I can be lazy) allow the crj900 get itself ready to taxi. I generate a flight plan in simbrief, load the flpln into the fms, chech it for discontinuities, set th AP to navigate, turn on vs mode and set to VS 1800 fpm. Set alt to 23000 ft. And take off. I get to about 5000 ft in a straight out pattern (SBND has no departure procedures) and press the AP button and I'm denied. It won't engage.

I'm not a very experienced sim pilot. And I'm new to comercial jets. I'm accustomed to Garmin style autopilot. I'm sure it's my fault, I'm not doing something in the proper sequence, or there's something I need to turn on and or configure before trying to engage the AP. Can someone help... please. I really like the CRJ and I want comercial jets to be fun.

53 minutes ago, Bloodcell said:

I ('cos I can be lazy) allow the crj900 get itself ready to taxi. I generate a flight plan in simbrief, load the flpln into the fms, chech it for discontinuities, set th AP to navigate, turn on vs mode and set to VS 1800 fpm. Set alt to 23000 ft. And take off. I get to about 5000 ft in a straight out pattern (SBND has no departure procedures) and press the AP button and I'm denied. It won't engage.

I'm not a very experienced sim pilot. And I'm new to comercial jets. I'm accustomed to Garmin style autopilot. I'm sure it's my fault, I'm not doing something in the proper sequence, or there's something I need to turn on and or configure before trying to engage the AP. Can someone help... please. I really like the CRJ and I want comercial jets to be fun.

Well first of all you shouldn't set VS mode for takeoff. Or climb at all, in general. There's a dedicated TO mode on the PFD, enabled with the TOGA button before takeoff. However i don't think this will prevent the AP from engaging.
What could be is that the aircraft is not trimmed out and/or you are pulling too much on the yoke. Trim it out and let go of the yoke, then push AP.

4 hours ago, Bloodcell said:

and press the AP button and I'm denied. It won't engage.

That means you probably forgot to activate all the yaw dampers including the mach trim. Without them the CRJ will deny you to use the AP.

Edited June 20, 20232 yr by Farlis

Thanks. I'll do everything as suggested here. I'll let y'all know what worked.

I just learned of the takeoff mode when I was reading the AFCS guide from the aerosoft website. I'll be trying that as well.

Oh yeah that's right, there should of course be no yellow warning messages left on the EICAS (or whatever it's called in the CRJ).

On 6/20/2023 at 5:53 PM, Farlis said:

That means you probably forgot to activate all the yaw dampers including the mach trim. Without them the CRJ will deny you to use the AP.

It was the yaw damper and-or mach trim. The crj is a little confusing because many of the buttons have no on-button indication that they have been activated. I have a lot to learn about the crj.

Thanks for the help!

23 hours ago, Fiorentoni said:

Oh yeah that's right, there should of course be no yellow warning messages left on the EICAS (or whatever it's called in the CRJ).

I did see the yellow yaw damper warning on the... thing. But only after I knew to look for it there. So thanks.

And btw, the yaw damper warning doesn't say if it's on or off. You have to know that if it's there, it's off.

On 6/20/2023 at 2:19 PM, Fiorentoni said:

Well first of all you shouldn't set VS mode for takeoff. Or climb at all, in general. There's a dedicated TO mode on the PFD, enabled with the TOGA button before takeoff. However i don't think this will prevent the AP from engaging.
What could be is that the aircraft is not trimmed out and/or you are pulling too much on the yoke. Trim it out and let go of the yoke, then push AP.

I used the TO mode. It did provide a more stable accent from the runway. Since it doesn't control the throttle or the pitch (that I could tell) and seems to only effect the roll, I'm not sure what it does that would be different than the wing leveler.

I set the elevator trim to the suggested setting (6.8), put it in TO mode, put the throttle in the toga detent and kept my hand off the stick, I was expecting it to lift off by itself but when it got to 160 knots on the runway, I figured it wasn't going to happen, so rotated it myself.

Part of what made me expect this is that any preselected pitch control such as VS, is canceled when TO is activated. Plus, I fly a lot in DCS and most jets, when set up properly for takeoff, will lift off on their own.

I suppose the real difference is the wing leveler is active right at liftoff. Is there something more that I may have missed?

In general you want to rotate the aircraft yourself at the vr speed, not wait until it lifts off on its own.  IRL you don't want to remain on the ground when you can safely take off in case of an engine failure.  It's also been a while since I have flown the crj, but a lot of airliners operate on the dark cockpit concept.  Meaning, in flight if everything is normal there are no lights on the buttons.  this lets you know immediately if something is amiss and draws your attention to the light immediately.  There's a ton of stuff to learn about airliners,  you seem to be going about it the same way I did about 12 years ago, lol.  figuring everything out by trial and error is way harder than learning by education, but I think the concepts stick because all the errors tend to happen, lol.  I will say, the CRJ is probably not my first choice for "beginner airliner"  If you have a spare 35 bucks the pmdg 737-600 is cheap,  really well done, has a great manual that explains stuff, is old school enough to not make you lazy, and automated enough to not overwhelm you.  The FBW airbus mod is fee and awesome as well, but the 737 would prepare you for the airbus more than the airbus will prepare you for everything else.

3 hours ago, Bloodcell said:

I used the TO mode. It did provide a more stable accent from the runway. Since it doesn't control the throttle or the pitch (that I could tell) and seems to only effect the roll, I'm not sure what it does that would be different than the wing leveler.

It does indicate a fixed TO pitch for a safe takeoff angle, but you probably mean after that. Common procedure is to immediately push the IAS button once gears are up, then it will give you pitch indications for the V2+10 (?) speed. Then after ACC altitude you dial it up to 250 (or lower, if speed restriction), and there you go.