Need help understanding KFC-200 operation

"Bill" wrote:
If the needle is moving slowly, it will have
to be centered or even a bit past center.

Yeah, it sounds like that's exactly what happened. I'll have to set up the
same scenario again the next time I'm in the plane and let it go a bit
further to see what happens.

Note that you can even intercept from FD-APR-ARM mode--wing
leveling only. Heading does not have to be selected to effect the
coupling--but the airplane needs to be aimed so as to
acheive an intercept.

That makes sense. The arm/couple circuitry is looking at the deviation
bar. It doesn't know if the bar is moving because you pointed the plane in
the right direction or because the A/P driven by the heading bug did the
same thing. Is suspect you could even get it to go from ARM to CPLD by
moving the course pointer so as to make the deviation bar center.

The tip of the day is to always use APR mode when coupling to
your GPS, even enroute. NAV mode is dumbed down
considerably to make crossing over VOR stations less
traumatic. APR doesn't suffer that, and since the GPS
course needle is rock solid APR works great with sharp,
precise coupling. You can fly a T shaped GPS approach
without ever decoupling it-- just feed the new headings in as
cued by the cnx-80.

Cool, I'll have to try that. I assume you mean "feed it new courses",
though, right?

There's a lot to learn about the KFC-200. Maybe the POH smart-
asses know what it does when the HSI is failed:
answer is that it will either cancel everything or just ignore
the heading bug, depending on how it's wired. Most cancel
everything if heading reference is lost and any mode requiring
heading is selected. But you can turn
FD and ALT modes back on and it will wing-level at a constant
altitude which can be very useful if you are trying to figure
out what to do after a gyro failure. Explore this by pulling
out the HSI breaker.

I will have to do that too.

Have you completely figured out the pitch modes?

You mean the one that suddenly puts the airplane into a 3000 FPM dive?
Yes, I've got that one figured out :-)

But, seriously, I understand altitude hold, and the UP/DOWN rocker switch
doing the 600 FPM climb/descent thing as long as you hold it. I'm still
working on getting the knack the of using CWS to change pitch, and getting
it to fly a coupled ILS, but I think one more flight and I'll have that
nailed.