Is it just me or is the CWS afflicted with hitches -- it sticks and jumps when you try to set it. Sometimes it will not release when I try to change from one pitch to another. I can push the yoke all the way forward and it won't change pitch. Am I doing something stupid or is there a problem?

I don't know. I've never had much trouble with the CWS in the 737.

By that I mean that when using the banking part of CWS, it starts to level the wings before it returns the the position I released the joystick at (I hope you know what I mean). :-/

The CWS pitch works very well. :)

Hey Tim, just a quick question. Are you using FSX Acceleration? I was using SP3 and had all sorts of problems with the CWS. Then I read that it only works properly with Acceleration so I bought a copy on eBay and that fixed it.

Cheers,
Nathan.

Yes Acceleration.

Let me rephrase it. Is CWS in 737 consistently working as expected for folks? I'm just trying to see if I need to troubleshoot or as shrug it off.

Thanks.

Random thought: I really like Bud's mod and rule of thumb for setting epr  for cruise. Brilliant. I may try fsxpaul's gauge next, although last time I tried I hosed up something.

Okay, I have some questions.

You're supposed to be pretty much dialed in when you engage autopilot, right? Is it proper, then, to use CWS to set a heading at 90 degrees, then use it to go to 360 degrees WITHOUT DISENGAGING, sort of using it like the Airbus FBW?  :o

It seems jerky if I do try to change heading, so I'm wondering if I'm not supposed to disengage lateral AP, get set up, then turn AP back on. (Or just use the Heading control.)

Also, I'm noticing that when I use CWS to change heading, it will go back to the starting heading, then return to the new heading. So if I'm headed North, and use CWS to set a new heading East, it will go back to North, then back to East.

Finally, I have to use trim when using CWS to change pitch. Is that normal? Its nothing I can't do, but I'm wondering if I'm flying it right if I have to use trim that way.

I often fly the 737 using CWS to control it. Especially after takeoff and when capturing the ILS/GS. I find it very good. I only have some minor issues with it. These are:

1. I want to do a turn with a 20 degree bank, so I start banking and release the yoke when the bank angle reaches 20 degrees. The 737 will start to level the wings (often to about a 5 degree bank), but then it will return to the 20 degree bank and hold it until change it (be that levelling off, or changing the bank angle).

2. The pitch is pretty good, but it's a bit hard to push the yoke forward and get the angle of attack I am trying to achieve for a descent. Pulling the yoke back for the angle of attack for a climb works fine for me.

So generally speaking, I find CWS pretty good once you understand (master?) it's idiosyncrasies. :-/

I do not use any mods at all with my 737. I did beta test Paul's V-One gauge and his fix for the loss of battery power - the problem where battery power drains and prevents you being able to start AP or engines, and ground/external power (EP) doesn't help either, so you are stuck in a "dead" aircraft. Mind you, the battery power drain problem doesn't happen very much for me, and when I do have the problem again, I simply *uninstall/reinstall it and it works properly again. So I have an "easy" fix for the problem. :)

* NOT the full uninstall/reinstall as in KB #685. It's just a simple uninstall/reinstall. ;)

I had weirdness with my avionics (not being able to get the numbers to change) and a loss of all power mid-flight (!) after installing Paul's mods. Keeping in mind the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, I nonetheless had to wonder if some wires hadn't gotten crossed. So I uninstalled it.

For me, pitch control works great after takeoff, but the CWS is really "sticky" and it doesn't want to "break loose" for me. I can overcome it with some trim, so whatever works. I am pretty pleased with it right now.

You got me thinking about it, so I got in a did a flight. The CWS is better than I remember it being. So it isn't as bad as I stated in my previous post.

I am doing a flight with a flight plan loaded, but I am controlling it using only CWS, for both pitch and bank, until I turn on ALT HOLD on at FL360. Then I will continue to use CWS for bank only. So far (just coming up to FL340) it's going really well.

EDIT #1: I get what you mean by the CWS being "sticky". I find it especially "sticky" when wanting to make slight banking movements. You pull the joystick left or right and the CWS suddenly "lets go" and the bank angle then jerks to left or right! So that certainly does need fixing. ;)

EDIT #2: I finished the flight in the 737 and it went really well. As I said, I used ALT HOLD at FL360, but followed the route tracks using CWS banking to change the course. While the "sticky" CWS made banking initially difficult, once it became "unstuck" it worked fine.

I am currently doing a return flight in the CS L-1011. This time though, I am using the A/T and ALT HOLD (at FL350). The difference between the CWS in the 737 and the L-1011 is quite a noticeable. In an earlier post in this Topic, I stated that if the CWS of the 737 could be brought to the level that the CWS is in the L-1011, then it would be a great improvement to the CWs control in the 737, and I'll stand by that comment. ;)

To sharpen my observation, the roll works fine with CWS, except for the odd behavior of returning to wings level, then back to whatever you have set the roll to.

It is the pitch that is the problem. It behaves much less nicely than the roll. If there were no problem, they would behave in similar fashion.

Sampling another's interpretation of the 737-200 CWS (ahem) there is a world of difference. Trust me on this one. But once Captain Sim gets their 737 finished, I'm sure there will be no comparison.

I have no luck with the CWS system. After takeoff, I will turn on the AIL channel to control Lateral Navigation and the autopilot just holds the current pitch. This is fine but when I want to modify the pitch it is impossible for me to do so. I nudge it slightly and hold it - nothing. I push it all the way forward - nothing. The elev trim just clicks away contrary to my input. If I turn the elev channel on it does the same. Nothing matters from hdg, nav, or man modes it will not let me modify the pitch.

I like the plane but flying manually all the way to cruise, while changing radios, navigating to way points, changing the course and heading bugs, is all rather taxing. This is compounded by the problem that if I'm climbing at 2000/ft.pm then look away to change a radio or something I can look back and I'm climbing 6000 ft.pm or descending.

I'm sorry you are having these problems. I took the 737-200 out for a flight yesterday. I only wanted to do a flight using the CWS, no VOR tracking (although I was follow a VOR radial manually and not using VOR LOC) and both pitch and bank worked fine. I did use ALT HOLD to maintain my chosen cruising altitude (FL320).

My main problems with the CWS are as follows:

1) When banking, it will reduce to 5 degrees, before returning and holding my chosen bank angle (i.e. I select 30 degrees, it reduces to 5 degrees, then returns to and holds 30 degrees). It does NOT do this every time though. Sometimes, it will reduce by only 5-10 degrees before returning to the bank angle I selected (i.e. I select 30 degrees, it returns to 20/25 degress, then it returns to and holds 30 degrees).

2) The pitch works fine except when I try to break the 737 free from ALTITUDE HOLD. I have learnt that if I gently push the joystick forward, it will break free from ALTITUDE HOLD without doing a sudden nose dive. In other words, I carefully break it free from the ALTITUDE HOLD.

Just now, I did a test turning only the AIL switch ON, and it had no affect on the pitch. All changes in pitch were like the ELEV switch was off. So it behaved just like it should, because ELEV was off. :-/

So for me, the experience with the CWS is always good. I do not know why yours would differ to mine.

I took it out yesterday and had better results. I just maintained rwy heading and climbed then descended. I found if I nudge it forward and little and hold it the cs will engage and hold the pitch. A few times it seemed to disengage completely and I had complete control.

I just need to gain a few more hours with this bird and I'm sure I'll have it down.

Quote:

I took it out yesterday and had better results. I just maintained rwy heading and climbed then descended. I found if I nudge it forward and little and hold it the cs will engage and hold the pitch. A few times it seemed to disengage completely and I had complete control.

So this time did you use both AIL and ELEV (both switched ON)?
Or was this with the AIL switch ON, and ELEV switch OFF?

With the AIL switch ON the CWS will hold any bank angle that you select to do a turn at, but because the ELEV switch is OFF, you must control the pitch (the CWS should not have control of it). I actually crashed my 737 yesterday when I was making absolutely certain that the ELEV switch (which was OFF) had no control over the pitch of the 737-200 at all. It didn't and the pitch kept on going down until the 737 ploughed into the ground at a very steep angle!


Quote:

I just need to gain a few more hours with this bird and I'm sure I'll have it down.

Yep. Practice makes perfect. You will get better as you get more familiar with it. ;)

Tim Capps wrote on Nov 24^th, 2014 at 2:41pm:

Yes Acceleration. Let me rephrase it. Is CWS in 737 consistently working as expected for folks? I'm just trying to see if I need to troubleshoot or as shrug it off. Thanks. Random thought: I really like Bud's mod and rule of thumb for setting epr  for cruise. Brilliant. I may try fsxpaul's gauge next, although last time I tried I hosed up something.

CWS out the box works fine for all CS planes that have CWS like the 737 and L-1011.

B7472cap, just a quick question, are you using FSX with Acceleration? CWS only seems to work properly if you are use Gold edition or FSX with Acceleration.

Cheers,

Nathan