Ctc = contact
There are 3 standard auto pilot settings in AH2. Auto Level, Auto Speed and Auto Angle. you can test them using x, alt-x and as you said ctrl-x. One thing about the auto pilots is if your stick needs calibration it might not hold the auto pilot you engaged.
Auto level is level flight. Self explainitory.
Auto Speed sets the climb rate in MPH. For example, a Yak will go from take off to almost 16,000 at 230 mph. Not bad if your wanting to grab while covering lots of distance, and grabbing a drink. To set it you merely brinig up the text buffer (/ key), type in .speed 230 and hit enter.
Auto Angle is a little different and you've touched on a nifty fact about it. Yes, you might point the nose skyward and hit ctrl-x and the plane will climb until she runs out of airspeed then her nose will slowly drop a required amount to maintain as close to the original nose up configuration as she can muster. At that point she may be very close to the edge of a stall. If you click out of the
auto angle mode she just might fall off on you. Another nice thing is you can trim to a given speed then hit auto angle and she'll stay there. This is helpful when you find you are just about out of gas but you may be able to convert some altitude to distance.
Many of the planes will glide, engine off, at 120 mph in a 1,000 fpm descent. That's 2 miles for every 1000 ft of lost altitude. If you're trying to make a field that is 12 miles away and you have 7k altitude you will glide home safely. Just trim the plane nose low to around 500 descent and hit auto angle. She will slowly nose down to around 1k fpm descent
Another sneaky fact about fuel burns to get you home. Hit auto level and pull all the power off the plane. Throttle back rpm and manifold. The plane will begin to slow. Eventually you will begin to there the stall warning buzzer. Bring up your E6B and begin adding just enough power to maintain level flight, no more. Now take a look at your E6B. You will have gone from 3 miles of gas left to 100 miles. And you maintaining level flight! Try it. See what distance your favorite ride will give you when you just finished a fight and looked at the ole gas gauge. You may get home with ease.
I think WB might have had a teeny bit higher zoom rate (mph). Different game, different feel. It doesnt take long to transition to the differences.
Hope this helps.
Ren
Aces High Training Corps
