A way of allowing third party products to drive the autopilot, such as the civa ins or the isg fms. Maybe a switch to allow fsx default hdg to be used, as this is what these apps use.

I double that. The switch on he 707 was a nice addition, maybe the 737 can get something like it too.

The 737 A/P is a custom one with CWS. The fsx default hdg is taken by CWS.  
If you wish the third party (CIVA etc) to use the default hdg we'll have to remove the CWS.
What do you need more, the third party or the CWS? Please vote.

I definitely want a real 737, so no CIVA for me thank you.

Seeing as I have to choose between one or the other, it has to be the CWS.

If its a choice between realism and a nice to have option then I will choose realism everytime. So CWS here too. Shame theres not somekind of way of disabling the CWS with a switch or a setting in ACE, but guess that would be too much work to implement right now... maybe for version 2.0?!! :)

Selectable via ACE or switch in the cockpit. Fits both parties and, as the CWS is already in that plane and the FSX HDG mode is.. in FSX, not much work needed.  :)

However, even if CWS for the bank was lost, it wouldn't change much on the ways I operate the plane. CWS pitch is nice and will still be there, but the rest is AP to MAN, then via HDG select, pitch remains CWS. If that allows the Civa and FMC addons to work, I'm in.  :D

CoolP wrote on Apr 24^th, 2012 at 5:15pm:

Selectable via ACE or switch in the cockpit. Fits both parties and, as the CWS is already in that plane and the FSX HDG mode is.. in FSX, not much work needed.  :)

Sound like a reasonable option. Then we ALL could switch between them if and when we wanted to. ;)

I have to applaud to CS for asking their customers by the way. Very open policy.  :)

CIVA CIVA CIVA

IMHO It can be done, where the two things work together.
Maybe you can create a dummy needle with fsx HDG linked to your HDG needle variable and you can have it all.
I hope at list that you can give us an offset that can be driven by FSUIPC or maybe a switch.
We are not going to see any Sperry 177, so at list it should be a a way to use external add-on.
But It's not only add-on that are handicapped that bother me it's also the hardware.

Maybe, I miss the point, but ...

VasFMC is actually capable of steering the autopilot. Thus, the a/c follows a selected heading in HDG mode as well as an flightplan in LNAV. (But it's not driving the HSI heading bug.)

I don't know if vasFMC uses some kind of other connection to the a/p than CIVA/ISG (I haven't tried them yet with the B732), but it seems that a third party addon can interact nevertheless.

Captain Sim wrote on Apr 24^th, 2012 at 4:23pm:

The 737 A/P is a custom one with CWS. The fsx default hdg is taken by CWS.   If you wish the third party (CIVA etc) to use the default hdg we'll have to remove the CWS. What do you need more, the third party or the CWS? Please vote.

CWS, CWS, CWS, CWS..........Ohhh, I forgot CWS. I would like to add that I do have a lot of flight sim gear too and it would be nice if we could all have what we want without taking away from anyone.

NaMcO wrote on Apr 24^th, 2012 at 4:26pm:

I definitely want a real 737, so no CIVA for me thank you.

Me too.
Voted CWS.

CoolP wrote on Apr 24^th, 2012 at 5:15pm:

Selectable via ACE or switch in the cockpit. Fits both parties and, as the CWS is already in that plane and the FSX HDG mode is.. in FSX, not much work needed.  :)

2 autopilots it's too much  ;)

The 707 runs fine with the options on Doppler or INS. Just saying that the option on the CWS bank mode leaves the decision at the customer side, while the change for either this OR that mode will lead to unhappy people at one party.
So if it's just about switching the AP gauge or the code for the CWS bank mode, why not include an option in the ACE or just some files to exchange, like on the CS CIVA mod for the 707. You folks are the devs, we're just suggesting things.  :)

Well, looking at the poll results so far it seems the CWS is going to stay...

I want to keep this up

I'm not sure why this has to be a decision between two autopilots.  

I have no access to the code but it seems to me that it should be a fairly simple matter to, at the point where the aircraft heading is determined, have an if-test check the setting of a switch/option and select either the current setting as determined by the CWS, or the current value reported by the heading variable in the FSX SDK.

A small change to the existing autopilot, not the addition of a different one, which would be way too much trouble.

Dutch

simbiosi wrote on Apr 26^th, 2012 at 9:34am:

I want to keep this up

What are you referring to? What do you want to keep up?

marvic wrote on Apr 26^th, 2012 at 12:28pm:

simbiosi wrote on Apr 26th, 2012 at 9:34am: I want to keep this up What are you referring to? What do you want to keep up?

I think he wants to keep this topic, up near the top of the list in the forum. ;)