GFC 700 Tricks and Tips

FPK1

FPK1

Line Up and Wait
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Apr 21, 2021
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Orange County, CA
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FPK1
Being fairly new to the GFC 700 autopilot in my airplane, which I love, I'm sure I don't know everything about it. I would appreciate you posting here any tricks and tips you might have...
 
Understand the difference between FLC and VS and their relationship to the throttle.
 
Agree, and study VNV. You need to understand Top of Descent, the 5 minute advance warning, and requirement to confirm with altitude reference change one minute prior to TOD. The first few times I thought I had engaged it, I flew right past the TOD but no descent was initiated. Also, remember that it is NOT like FLC, you MUST reduce power to avoid overspeeding. Strongly advise practicing all of these modes (VS, FLC, VNV) on MSFS2020 or XP12 to really nail them mentally. The other thing to practice are LPV approaches, if you have WAAS receivers (GIA63W or GIA64). I had never executed an actual WAAS approach in rentals before I bought my DA40. Knowing the PFD indicators for different lateral and vertical modes, when GS is armed, when it is active are very important. Also when to go into Approach mode. Again, flight sims provide a great way to practice.
 
Find a CFII who knows the system well and take a few "deep dive" lessons. It's a really simple autopilot but some functions, such as the wonderful VNV @Martin Pauly mentioned, have a "gotcha" here and there. If you are curious, this was a video I did for my flying club - we fly DA40s with G1000s. The video uses Garmin's (old) G1000 trainer for the DA40, but Iove doing it as a demo for real and what the client's eyes go wide as we go from enroute to DA only needing to confirm the settings and adjust the throttle.

 
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