X-Plane 11.10 beta Gyro synchronisation

Jesco Freund

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Today 7:33 PM
Those of you daring to try the 11.10 beta releases may have noticed that since beta 3, XP is warning about a gyro synchronisation issue. What's behind this? Well, some planes (I know it in particular for Carenado, JustFlight and AirFoilLabs) use the vacuum gyro data reference to drive their directional gyro instrument and (more noticeable) the heading input for the autopilot.

In real life, the vacuum gyro needs to be synchronised with the magnetic compass before every flight, and on longer flights even during flight. However, so far X-Plane did not simulate vacuum gyro drift, nor did it simulate that vacuum gyros point to a random heading once powered on. Therefore, pilots in XP had no need to bother, and also aircraft designers did not necessarily bother - some like JustFlight and AirFoilLabs however included controls on their directional gyro instruments to align them with the magnetic compass. Some others (like Carenado) didn't.

Now, with the upcoming 11.10 release, Laminar has chosen to simulate both effects - gyro drift and random initialisation after power-on. Hence the warning message, telling you the vacuum gyro is off magnetic heading. This warning occurs only on planes which actually use the vacuum gyro data refs to feed their gyro instrument or autopilot.

For those planes already prepared to deal with vacuum drift (e. g. the JustFlight PA-28 Arrow III), there's nothing you need to do, except align the gyro instrument with the magnetic compass. For planes not providing a knob or button to perform this alignment, there are several fixes you can apply:
  • Set up a key or button on your joystick to serve this command: sim/instruments/DG_sync_mag - this command re-sets your vacuum gyro data ref to be aligned with the magnetic compass.
  • Specifically for Carenado planes (e. g. the King Airs, but also the Grand Caravan), as input instead of the vacuum gyro. This is a dirty fix, and you should revert it once 11.10 is final and Carenado has provided updated aircrafts to deal with the new gyro model.

Blue Skies
Jesco
 
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