ComNav Commander P2 - Both - Steering Smoothly Back to a Track; Figure 89 - Steering with Correction Set to both

ComNav Commander P2 & P2VS Installation & Operation Basic Operations
Document PN 29010074 V4.1 - 136 -
Both – Steering Smoothly Back to a Track
When Correction is set to “Both”, the autopilot will bring the boat onto the desired Track as
smoothly and efficiently as possible.
Experience has shown that this is generally the best method for most boats.
Figure 89 – Steering with Correction set to Both
When steering using this method, the autopilot tries to minimize Cross-Track Error by
steering to a Heading that lies between a perpendicular to the Track and the current bearing
to the destination waypoint.
The farther you are off-track, the closer to the perpendicular the Heading will be. As you
come closer to the Track, the Heading of the boat will change closer to the Heading of the
Track.
When you are on-track, the boat’s Heading and the Track will be identical.
To see how this method works, try it out by performing the following steps:
1) Change “Correction” in the Nav menu to “Both”, and “MAX Correction” to 90°.
2) Make sure the Navigation System is turned on, that a route consisting of at least a
starting position (origin) and a destination point is entered, and that the Navigation
System is set to output sentences which contain CTS or BPD data.
3) Repeat steps 3) to 9) of the XTE – Steering Quickly Back to a Track test.
4) At step 6), the autopilot should be steering so as to minimize Cross-Track Error as
smoothly as possible. It may be hard to tell if the steering is any different than with “XTE
Correction”.
5) At step 9), the autopilot should steer the boat in a smooth arc back onto the Track.
If the Commanded Heading does initially go to 90° different than the Track, it should stay
there for a much shorter time that with XTE Correction, and then gradually change back
to the Track’s bearing.
• Similarly to XTE Correction, you can limit the limit the effects of the autopilot’s
potential “perpendicular to Track” steering with large Cross-Track Error values, with
the Max Correction parameter.
Caution! Be sure to maintain a sharp lookout to ensure that there are no obstacles
between the boat’s current position & the desired Track, with “Both” Correction.