We use ECS on our Lake Bulk carrier. Our steering system is a Navitron NT999G autopilot. This steering system can digest a NMEA HTC (Heading Track Control) sentence to more accurately navigate turns. Without this sentence’s presents, the steering system uses preset Max-Rudder-Angle and Max-Rate -Of-Turn. With the HTC sentence the autopilot uses the information to override the preset rudder data to follow the turn radius.
Ideally An additional Waypoint Arrival item (Currently ‘Arrival Circle’, ‘Wheel Over’, and ‘Predicted Log Race’) would be added. This additional item could be called ‘Turn Radius’. This item would draw an arc like the Wheel Over, but be adjustable like the ‘Arrival Circle’. This combined with the HTC sentence would allow for autopilot operation more closely resembling real world operation.
Another feature that I would like to see is a ‘Follow’ feature that would allow ‘own ship’ to be placed anywhere desired on the screen, and the charts move around that position. This would be similar to the ‘Off Center’ setting on most RADAR’s.