D2 Air Flight Auto-Detect Not working

I am assuming you have contacted Garmin regarding this issue (also see this issue on my D2 Delta). Did you hear back from them?

Hey. Not yet as I was doing some troubleshooting on my own. I looked into improving GPS accuracy but it too isn't working. So, I guess I will contact Customer Support now. Have you contacted them? 

Since the D2 Bravo, I have found the "auto fly" functionality to be inconsistent at best and terrible at its worst. In fact, I no longer see it as a usable feature whatsoever and have instead modified my checklist with items to remind me to start and stop the Fly app.

I see that you have perhaps some deeper knowledge of how these features work. Every time Fly activity is manually started, it searches for GPS signal that takes a while. I would assume that auto-detect feature works on GPS being active or semi-active all the time to detect speed or altitude change. I have turned off auto activity start in activity tracking because of battery drainage. I would test what happens if I turn it back on. 

Before Take-off checklist could keep on getting longer (turn GoPro on, turn D2 air fly on, ...etc.)  ..

As far as I know, the autofly feature works based on the pressure change corresponding to the set vertical speed (500 fpm, etc.) and GPS activates as a result of the Fly app being activated. I have had the Fly active start automatically while driving in the hilly areas. I notice in my wife's Venu that it takes much longer to acquire the GPS lock compared to my D2 Delta or Fenix 6. D2 air based on Venu. I am interested to find out if there are any battery savings by disabling the autofly feature.  Like dbrobert said, the autofly feature hasn't been reliable at all on D2 models lately. It used to work at one point on D2.

I contacted Garmin customer service and they suggested the following:

I would actually like to start with a master reset and see if that give you better performance.  I have the instructions below. Try that out and let me know how that works.

Master Reset:

• Hold the top right button for 15 seconds (it will bring up the emergency assistance first, but will then go dark and reset) This will not erase the User's info

I have followed the step and performed Master Reset (hopefully .. as the screen just goes off and I had to restart the watch, but yeah I didn't loose any data). However, I didn't get a chance to fly since that day. Has anyone performed this step and been successful in getting back the flight auto-detect function?

Well, I went flying the last week and unfortunately the solution from the customer suppport didn't work. Auto-detect function for a flight is still not working. 

It recognises when I land. So, the feature only half works. Not sure if that is surprising or not.

I gave up on Garmin some of these advertised features failing work repeatedly. My D2 Delta is almost 3 years old..may be too late to ask for a money back..if you are not satisfied fully, ask for a money back. I am sure they will honor it.

I fly commercially.. it gets the signal... Then once air born it loses it and I can't get it back.. anyone aware of speed limits on these watches?

You mean as a passenger or in the cockpit? Are you referring to loosing GPS signal? I haven't tried the D2 Air in commercial, but my D2 Delta takes a while to capture the GPS signal while sitting in the window seat. There are no speed limits that I am aware of.