Throttle problem

[Guest hprass]

My DC3 passenger model, after flying awhile, loses one throttle lever control from the joystick. It can however, be activated by the mouse. If I change to the RD4 they work normally.Is there any way to "repair" this in flight without changing planes?

[rambow 0]

Sounds like a key assignment issue. Something - a utility or add-on program running inside or alongside FS may be activating the E+1 or E+2 key press (depending on which throttle is going belly-up). Do you lose control of the corresponding prop and mixture lever at the same time? You probably don't have these controls on your joystick, but if my theory is correct you will also lose keyboard control of that engine when you lose joystick control. When it happens next time, see if the F1 through F4 keys operate one or two engines. Are you certain that this only happens in the passenger model, or are you seeing it there because that's what you have been flying? In other words, if you fly the R4D for the same period of time, will this anomoly show up? It may be that it is and resetting to any other aircraft will fix it.The only differences in the gauge sets of the R4D and the DC-3's have to do with the MAP and RPM gauges, and nothing is different in the quadrant function, so I can't imagine why this would be specific to one model.To fix it in flight, try hitting E+1 and 2 together, to re-establish dual engine control, assuming this is what is happening.If this is verified, you need to discover what might be activating those keys - assuming it's not your fingers ;-). Since this is an unreported issue, it's not likely this is a bug within the R4D/DC-3, so you need to look at what else is running that may be causing this.Good luck, and let us know what you discover. Bill Rambow MAAM-SIM - Rambow, Visser, Banting, Young, Womack, Sodja & Beaumonthttp://www.fssupport.com/maam_sim/maamsim_logo2.gif

[Guest hprass]

Thanks Bill for a comprehensive response. Since this is a problem which seems to come and go, it may be a while before I'm able to get it ti re-occur. I can tell you that I've been avoiding the passenger model the last few months because that's the only one in which it happened. I do remember once having trouble with the mixture controls as well.I am confused by your reference to E+1 and E+2. I've never used such combinations. Is that like Ctrl+E in the sense the you push those keys consecutively? I'll let you know when I get new info.Thanks

[Guest hprass]

Bill,Got the problem immediately with passenger model. The following seems to be true after repeated tries:1 re selecting the plane, even the same one, corrects the problem2 E1 causes right engine not to respond to the joystick3 Sometimes E2 will bring back the right engine but then the left is lost4 When this anomoly is in effect the RPM levers will not work as a unit-only one at a time.5 The F1,F2,F3 and F4 keys work just like the joystick and will not engage the engine that's non responsive.6 This does go across models when I hit E1. However, I never remember it happening in the RD4 i.e. on its own.When you get a chance any suggestions would be appreciated. Maybe I should try a reinstall.Until this is rectified I'm suspending cargo lifts to India over the "hump".

[Guest allcott]

Sounds like you haven't read the FS manual! E + 1, E+2 etc, is specifically used to SEPARATE the engine throttle controls by giving `focus` to engine 1, engine 2, etc. So selecting E1 is doing precisely what it is supposed to, isolating the focus on engine 1. If you press E2, what you're doing is shifting the focus to the next engine, NOT restoring ALL engine control. Read the manual for details.To restore `all engine ` control is a DIFFERENT key press. Default is `E`, then keyboard `1` and `2` consecutively for a twin, 1-4 for four. Use keyboard not keypad.This will solve the problem, but will not identify the cause, so check as Bill has advised - you probably have an addon that has `stolen` the E+1 function or is somehow interfering with default key commands. Active Camera is the usual suspect, great addon, but curious choice of default kepypresses GUARANTEED to get in the way of normal FS functions - screws up the view panning and differential braking from memory, among other things but is easily fixed.Finally , if you have the payware version of FSUIPC you can choose your own hotkey combination to restore all-engine control and use something that is more intuitive like Ctrl+Alt+E.Allcott

[Guest kennethg]

If it helps, I had a similar problem with what turned out to be a gauge in a helicopter that was stealing the 1 and 2 functions, so I couldn't select anything that had more than one function (like two exits, or two throttles) after flying it.After a lot of deinstalling, I discovered that it was a gauge that was used by a Eurocopter EC144 that I had found on Hovercontrol. Later on, I read in another forum that there were some .xml guages out there that was capturing and repeating keystrokes, which would prevent the selection of any functions required the keyboard's 1 and 2 keys. This Eurocopter has a very complex engine start procedures and engine monitoring gauges, so I suspect the error was in one of those gauges. The helicopter is no longer installed in my FS9, and the problem has gone away.

[Guest t-force1]

Hi Bill,I started having this issue recently as well. I say recently, because I'm pretty sure that it was working correctly at one point: I remember cutting off the fuel flow to the engines sepeately using CTRL + SHFT + F1. I can reload any plane (including MAAM DC-3) and the problem will go away.I traced it down to just hitting the E key. E + 1: left engine only. E + 2: left engine only. E + 1 then 2 left engine only. In fact, just hitting the E key with no follow up gives me left engine control only. This is with my USB throttle, or keyboard commands for mixture and prop pitch.If I reload any plane, engine 1 and 2 controls get linked again. In fact, any multi engine plane other than the MAAM DC-3 planes will behave normally as far as controlling the left and right engines normally, I'm only having this issue with the MAAM one. The only thing I've installed since the MAAM packages is Active Sky. I uninstalled it and even went back to the old FSUPIC (sp?) .dll before I installed active sky, but no luck. I'm not even sure that's the problem, but it's the only thing I could think of. Any ideas?Eric

[rambow 0]

Hi Eric,Nope, sorry. Nothing new has come up on this, so as far as I know it is not widespread. Of course that does not help you much, does it? I don't mean to be flip. It's just hard to find a solution to a problem we can not reproduce on our own systems.Bill RambowMAAM-SIM http://www.fssupport.com/maam/maamsim_neon.gif

[Guest t-force1]

O.k. Just thought I'd check in. At the very least, the thread has been bumped to make it more visible. If I figure it out, I'll definitely post it here. I really have no idea what changed as I am pretty sure it was working properly for me before.Eric

[Guest t-force1]

One more bit of information I'm hoping someone can recognize what is going on. On the MAAM DC-3 series only, it is not just throttle selection, it is any command that has a followup number selection. E + (num) for throttle or Shift E + (num) for exit door selection or Shift P + (1 or 2) for pushback and turn. So for whatever reason, FS is not recognizing the follow up number selection when I'm in the MAAM DC-3. Therefore, pressing any of those commands always operates on selection '1' because it never sees a the number press (or in the case of a pushback, it's always straight). Stranger and stranger...

[Guest t-force1]

PROBLEM SOLVED!Somehow, the auto pilot got left on in a saved flight. The MAAM DC-3 autopilot disrupts the key sequence between the E, Shift-E, or Shift-P followed by the number. Not sure why. Anyway, I can see it happen whenever the autopilot is swtiched on with the Z key, but everything behaves normally as soon as I switch the autopilot off. No biggy, now that I know what is going on. It was driving me nuts! Hope this helps someone.

[Guest allcott]

Yeah, this one can be an absolute swine to troubeshoot as it can just as easily be caused by a single gauge, entirely unrelated to the MAAM aircraft or an addon. Short of disabling ALL the non-default gauges in the gauge folder one at a time I didn't see how you could track it down. You got lucky finding the aircraft was causing the problem itself! But I think three's a gauge in the Avsim library by Rob Barenderegt that is expressly designed to fix this issue - it might save someone hours of playing `hunt the gauge`!One thing though, if you DO find that a gauge is causing the issue you can remove that gauge from the gauges folder and place it directly in the panel folder of the aircraft that uses it and THAT seems to fix the problem too!Hope this helps Allcott