Hi,I have tried to fire up this aircraft from cold and dark, but with no succes. I have followed the Quickstart manual to the letter, but I cannot even start the APU.Some of the button numbers mention in the manual are apparently different from the ones shown in the drawings, others are not shown in drawings at all.It there a tutorial some where to fire up this aircraft?Best Regards,Anders

If you're using the Tupolev Tu-144 v2 from Claudio Mussner and Thomas Ruth, then the information in the Engish document about the Engineer panel does have the wrong button numbers - if you follow them you won't get anything started.I don't know of any tutorial for the Tu-144. If you want more detailed information on the engineer panel and some of the other gauges used in this plane you can download the Project Tupolev Tu-154B2 manual from here:http://fs-proteam.com/products.html?op=one&pw_patt=catalog&id=18The entire engineer panel and lots of the other gauges are based on the PT Tu-154B2 engineer panel and gauges. In the PT Tu-154B2 the panels have more functions and are more detailed and they are only for 3 engines as opposed to the 4 in the Tu-144 - but if you're familiar with the Project Tupolev panels and planes then that does make using this Tu-144 much easier. At any rate the Project Tupolev planes (Tu-154B2; Tu-154M and IL-62M) are great and certanly worth checking out.Here's how to start the Tu-144 APU (ВСУ) using the batteries:1. You need to switch the batteries on - Select which battery to use (1, 2, or 3 doesn't matter which as long as its one of them) with switch 2 'СЕТИ'; then set Switch 6 to the upper position 'АККУМУЛЯТОР N1' - you'll see the red light 'ВНИМАНИЕ! СЕТЬ ОТ АККУМ' next to the switch turn on. Also you'll be able to see the % of the selected battery power remaining in the box (3) just below the red light.2. Optional - You can test if all the warning lights (including the ones on the APU) are working properly by pressing Button 'КОНТРОЛЬ ЛАМП' right in the middle bottom of the panel (with all the engine gauges).3. Optional - You can now connect external power if you want by flicking switch 1 to 'РАП' the lower position. I prefer to just use the batteries to start the APU, so you can leave Switch 1 in the middle position.4. Before attempting to start the APU you need to set the following switches to the upper position: 7 - The APU Master switch 8 - The APU Start/Rotate switch 9 - The Fire shutoff switch(These are all on the lower left, APU-ВСУ part of the Engineer panel)You'll see the following green lights come on in the APU panel area:'ЗАБОРНИК ОТКРИТ' - APU door opened'ГОТОВ К ЗАПУСКУ' - ready to start'Р ТОПЛИВА' - fuel pressure5. You can now start the APU with switch 10 'ПУСК' - you can watch it switch on and monitor RPM on gauge 11.6. With the APU now switched on you need to connect it. You do that with setting switch 1 to the upper position 'ВСУ'. Once you do that the red light 'ВНИМАНИЕ! СЕТЬ ОТ АККУМ' (Warning! Power from Batteries) will go off.7. Now set switch 2 to the 'C' position so that all batteries will recharge once the engines are turned on (and not just the one you've selected for APU start).8. Ensure switches 4 (N1) and 5 (N2) are in the upper position - these are the Avionics master switches.There you go, APU started and connected.(the attached image is of the engineer panel from the original Tu-144 v2 documents, showing all the gauge and button/switches numbers)

Starting the engines on the Tu-144 v2Now that you've started the APU, you can proceed with connecting bleed air from the APU, turning the fuel system on and starting the engines. Here's how:1. Connect bleed air to the cabin ventilation and engines systems - click and hold switch 12 (bleed air switch) in the upper position 'ОТБОР ВОЗДУХА' for 8 seconds until the green light 'ГОТОВ К ЗАПУСКУ' goes out.2. Now need to position the engine stop levers '25' in the upper position.3. Power up the fuel indicators - switch 17 'ТОПЛИВОМЕР' upper position4. Switch on the fuel pumps - 14, 15, 165. Open all 4 Fire Shutoff Valves - 26, place all in upper position6. Turn on Fuel Automation with switch 19 'АВТ. РАСХ ' - upper position7. Turn on Auto Fuel Equalization Mode with switch 18 - upper position8. Set the fuel management mode to automatic with switch 20 - upper position**********You can manage your fuel manually with another fuel transfer knob type of switch - by setting it from AUTO to NB (fuel transfer to the front) or NT (fuel transfer to the rear) and monitoring the COG (CG) gauge - I would suggest living it in AUTO and you can read more about this in the original documents, its described pretty well.**********9. Optional - switch on all beacon and nav lights; and also Seatbelts, No Smoking, and Exit light switches10. You're now ready to start the engines; Switch on the Engine Start Master switch and Engine Igniter switch - 21 and 22 upper position 'ЗАПУСК'11. If the outside temperature is below +5 degrees Celsius also switch on 23 'ОБОГРЕВ ЗАПАЛЬНОГО УСТРОЙСТВА' - heaters power switch. Now you can select engines 1-4 with the Engine selector knob '24' and start each one with button 27. It takes a little while for an engine to start, you can monitor their progress in the engine gauges part of the engineer panel - 28Once successful start of an engine is achieved, let's say Number 1, you can switch on its corresponding generator using the generator switches - 29. After 1 has started you can switch on generator 1, etc... Repeat procedure for all 4 engines. once that's done set switch 1 to the middle position 'ВЫКЛ' as you no longer need APU (ВСУ) or outside power (РАП).Now set Switch 24 - the Engine selector switch to neutral and turn off switches 21 and 22; and also 23 if you used it.Then shutdown the APU. To do that you need to first disconnect bleed air from the system by pressing and holding switch '12' in the lower position until the green light 'ГОТОВ К ЗАПУСКУ' comes on again (need to hold the switch in the lower position for 8 seconds).You can now use the APU stop button 'СТОП' to shut it down - its right next to the APU start button '10' (sorry its not numbered in the picture). After that switch off 7, 8 and 9.That's it for the engine start.

Hello Momtchil,Thank you very, very much for your help!I will give it a try, and report back when I hopefully have succeeded in fireing up this bird..Best Regards,Anders

No problem. I hope you manage to get her started (if you follow what I've written should be able to, feel free to post if you have problems) - she's an enjoyable aircraft to fly and provides challenging landings.

Succes!I fired up the APU and engines! Now we are at the appearent errors in the english manual, are there any other issues during taxi, takeoff, climb, cruise, etc I should be aware of?And yes, I have now also installed the Ilyushin 62 and the various Tupolev 154 models - I can´t wait to try them out also.Best Regards,Anders

Great, enjoy flying and happy landings. I don't think there are anymore issues - the rest of the Tu-144 v2 English documents don't have any significant errors I can remember about.Good luck with the Project Tupolev planes - they're complex but very rewarding and satisfying to fly, a full reading of the manuals is a must with these aircraft.

Hi Momtchil,Yes, the IL-62M and Tu-154 are complex, which I more see as an interesting challenge. My biggest concern however is learning the East European (Russian) navigation techniques, which appears much more complicated that the "western" VOR-radials and ADB type of navigation.I also have Samdims Tu-124, another beautiful russian, where I yet have to understand all the navigation techniques.BRAnders

It takes a while but with persistence you'll get the hang of Soviet style Russian Navigation. At any rate you can always use VOR and ADF with the Russian Equipment in the same way it is used in Western Aircraft. You can also use the KLM-90B GPS system.

This is without doubt the trickiest plane I have flown so far..Until now I have been able to takeoff reasonably undramatically! During takeoff, you are really busy with trimming of the aircraft into a steady climb, before you activate the AP. Simultaneously, you have to adjust speed, to avoid overspeed. I do not understand why the manual suggests that you have to ignite the afterburner during takeoff. 80-90% throttle is more than enough to initially climb out with 3000 FPM (15 m/s).Getting it to 50.000 feet is not that difficult; this particular screen in the middle of the panel gives a good overview to adjust VS and Mach on the AP to get a steady and calm climb. This process however is quite rewarding!I am still in the process of learning how to land this aircraft - the main challenge being to brake this plane down enough, before you enter the Glidescope.However, there are a few oddities;- the two Nav radios; adjusting the frequency is a "hit or miss" process; each time you just point the mouse on the radio and adjusting knob, the frequency will change to something else.. It takes several attemps to actually get the freq. right. Have I missed something here?- I am still not 100% familiar with the AP: for instance, you can appearently only switch on the the VS and Altitude together, not individually. And what is "wing level"? - In full screen view, as I change from external view to cockpit view, Altitude setting disappears, and the nose is lowered together the canards that are going out!? At Mach 2, I could imagine that this would rip the aircraft apart in reality..Other than that, an exiting aircraft and a terrific sound file - I do however need to train more these landings.. And next step will be learning the russian INS..BR Anders

Sorry for late reply, I've been away for the last 2 weeks.Use of the afterburners allows you to take off from a shorter distance, which is aways advisable.The Nav radios are indeed strangely modeled, with both of the frequencies in each radio displaying the current active one and changing to show the reserve one as well - this can make things confusing but you get used to it more or less. Just wait for the frequency you're editing.As for this:

- In full screen view, as I change from external view to cockpit view, Altitude setting disappears, and the nose is lowered together the canards that are going out!? At Mach 2, I could imagine that this would rip the aircraft apart in reality..

Sorry - I've never had that problem, I have no idea what could be causing this on your system.

Thanks,for the answer. Don´t worry about the time for answering. As this is freeware, I am patient :rolleyes:In the meantime I have been over at HJG, and practiced some INS with their DC8.Maybe this view switch phenomenom is related to my FSUIPC programing? I will look into it.BR,Anders

Hi.

 

I know that this is aged topic but has anyone had problem with attitude indicator reverse pitch? When i climb it shows pitch down, when descending it shows pitch up. Could it cause the problem if INS is not aligned or is it problem with gauges? I have this model V2 from AVSIM.

 

Thanks.

Hi.

 

I know that this is aged topic but has anyone had problem with attitude indicator reverse pitch? When i climb it shows pitch down, when descending it shows pitch up. Could it cause the problem if INS is not aligned or is it problem with gauges? I have this model V2 from AVSIM.

 

Thanks.

I found that too!

So I also had the Original TU-144 with the Tu144_cm folder in your Gauges folder

I found that there are two files Pkp-1d.xml and AGR-72.xml that control these two indicators. I used the xml code from under the </Image> to just above the <Rotate> of these old files to replace the code in the Tu-144V2 Tu144_G folder xml files of the same name. And now those indicators respond correctly. 

I don't know XML and am sure there are just a couple of reversed expressions somewhere, but this is what I've done for the time being.