Hi all,
I have a question regarding Auto Pilot Plus.
So last night I took off from Chicago O Hare and was on a flight bound for London Heathrow.
- When I use Auto Pilot Plus, I noticed it paused the flight up to 48 hours at the last saved location and continues flying after I click the continue button. Is this correct?
- I noticed that when i went back to sleep the flight was over Canada but when i got up at 6am my time, i found the flight was already approaching London. I’m confused - is this how autopilot plus works? Literally flying like a real life autopilot on a plane? Because when I read the documentation it said the flight will pause for 48 hours before I come back and fly. I did paused and went back a couple of times while the flight was over the US and it worked as intended. But I was wondering how come it actually flew all the way.
Thanks!
Welcome to the Community!
AutoPilot+ flies the plane in the background - it only pauses once it reaches 30 minutes from your destination - from then you have 48 hours from the point you started the flight to resume it and land.
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Thank you for the warm welcome!
Some follow up questions:
As quoted from the documentation:
“When you are ready to continue, simply select CONTINUE FLIGHT from the AutoPilot+ area of the mode selection on the main menu. You’ll resume wherever your flight is along your route.”
Q1. Does this apply at any point I pause the flight? So meaning if I am able to click on continue flight, it will pause? I am kinda lost as I was under the impression that the flight would pause at the location where I saved and then I continue where I left off within 48 hours. Could you give me an example based on the ORD to LHR flight?
"If you can’t return as soon as you thought, we have you covered. The flight will pause once your flight reaches approximately 30 minutes remaining of the Estimated Time En route (ETE). "
Q2. If I log off infinite flight and the flight is in Autopilot mode, regardless of whether I actively fly the plane or not, the flight will pause 30 minutes before arrival and that is the location (arrival destination) in which I will have to manually resume? And from the moment it is paused I have 48 hours to resume flight or progress is lost?
Q3. What about time zone? How will that work in autopilot mode? I noticed it was still flying in Chicago time even as it approached Heathrow.
Could you provide an example of this based on ORD to LHR flight based on a few example scenarios? I think this will help me understand the AutoPilot concept better. Thank you!
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Before I answer your questions, I would take a look at the blog post as well as the thread dedicated to the AP+ feature. This will have answered your questions right away.
Q1: I’m not sure what your question is, but like Benny said, as long as you are more than 30 minutes away from your destination, AP+ will continue your flight from the moment you exit your device. However, you can watch it continue in real time through the app or tracker apps, and if you choose to resume at any time, you’ll be put in at whatever place it is in your route. This is replacing the resume feature, so now it no longer just saves your last location and then lets you continue from there. Rather it will finish all but the last 30 minutes of your flight.
Q2: Yes and yes
Q3: Timezones do not affect AP+ in any way. Since it is flying your plane in the sim, as soon as you hit the “leave flight” button and give your flight over to AP+, a 48 hr countdown starts, and at the end of these 48 hrs you can no longer access that flight. I’m not sure what you mean when you say that your flight is still flying in Chicago time. All AP+ tracks is flight time left. That will operate independently of timezones. If you’re referring to the time in the app that controls the light and such, that’s a known issue where it is getting reset to noon every time you start a new flight or resume one. It will be fixed in the future
An example of this would be: you start a flight from ORD to LHR, and once at cruise you leave your flight, making sure all of your AP+ parameters are met. Now, the server continues your flight in the background. You can close the app, turn off or even destroy your phone. The flight will continue, following the flight plan, and keeping the same altitude and ground speed you left it at. Once it reaches the last 30 minutes of your flight plan into LHR, it was pause the flight, and you can resume it there at your leisure.
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You are the best, that answered my questions! Thanks for such a detailed answer! Appreciate it man!
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