Well, when I first read your reply (Larry), I did wonder. However, I'm the first to admit I've put things in a forum thinking one thing and had it come out totally opposite. I suspect what you mean more is that your controller feels unrealistic rather than the aircraft itself. Every controller is different and those settings that work for me on my CH may be completely different on a Saitek. Suffice to say that the Beaver on floats does feel very "soft" (mushy?) so if you can reproduce that via the parameters I gave you here (but using the numbers that work for you), the all's the good. Where I would take issue is starting to play with the flap, power, etc. scalars that will affect how the Beaver performs overall. My only adjustments were to make my controllers feel more like the real thing, but not affect the flight parameters of the machine itself. By all means, give that a try, but if you want to keep the performance realistic, I wouldn't play with anything else there :(.Good luck with it and enjoy the Beaver. One of the best planes ever made!Glenn

Nice thread. Great to get info from a real Beaver driver. Have the Saitak yoke and CH peddals. Before even flying I had the yoke opened up and modified the springs to get rid of the center detent. There is another thread regarding this. Have also treeked the pitch roll and yaw affectiveness. Elev. trim was too jumpy so I dropped that too, also put my old joystick throttle to use for elevator trim. One problem with the yoke is the elevator control travel. The yoke provides only about 5 inches of travel when I bet the beaver has probably 12 to 18 inches in real life. Also the roll, the yoke only rolls about 45 degrees. Will a real yolk go to 90? I bet it does. This is what I'm thinking of doing. At least for the elevator travel. I think if I can find a yoke shaft somehow, or have an aluminum one turned on a lathe that would be about a foot longer. Then remove original shaft, take the yoke to a bandsaw and cut that sucker in half lateraly so I have a front half and rear half that can just be mounted on a new platform. Mating the elevator pot arm longer and repositioning it as well. The springs can be re-done too. Longer springs. I think exept for the shaft, Home Depot would have what I need. Actualy when you look at the yoke. Dissasembly is removing the bottom half of the unit. No prob. I would just mount it upside down on the new platfor, attaching the (wheel) rightside up.

Nice pictures...

Are you talking about the Aerosoft version of the Beaver or the default version?I wonder whether something can be done against the overpower. Has someone any idea what colum in the aircraft.cfg has to be adjusted?

Are you talking about the Aerosoft version of the Beaver or the default version?I wonder whether something can be done against the overpower. Has someone any idea what colum in the aircraft.cfg has to be adjusted?

We've been referring to the default, but there is very little difference between the default and the Aerosoft version. What do you mean by the "overpower"? Are you referring to the fact the manifold pressure will exceed redline when you apply full power?Glenn

We've been referring to the default, but there is very little difference between the default and the Aerosoft version. What do you mean by the "overpower"? Are you referring to the fact the manifold pressure will exceed redline when you apply full power?Glenn

Well Glenn, now I´m a bit confused. This topic refers to the default Beaver and you are showing some pictures of the aresoft one. I´d read here in this topic that one of the Beavers is abit overpowered but I don´t know which one. Is it the default or the aerosoft one. Could you enlighten me?And yes, your are right. The MAP exceeds the red line (If I recall right.). Is this normal or an indication of overpower? I haven´t flown the Beaver for quite a time now, so I could be wrong on this. Btw. I´m refering to the arosoft one, just to keep it clear.

Well Glenn, now I´m a bit confused. This topic refers to the default Beaver and you are showing some pictures of the aresoft one. I´d read here in this topic that one of the Beavers is abit overpowered but I don´t know which one. Is it the default or the aerosoft one. Could you enlighten me?And yes, your are right. The MAP exceeds the red line (If I recall right.). Is this normal or an indication of overpower? I haven´t flown the Beaver for quite a time now, so I could be wrong on this. Btw. I´m refering to the arosoft one, just to keep it clear.

OK, confusion understandable if you aren't familiar with both :(. In fact, both the Aerosoft Beaver and the default Beaver are very, very similar. Both have the same operating parameters, and both have about the same feel in flight, power settings, etc. So if you are talking about one, you are talking about both.Insofar as the available power goes, yes, what you are seeing is normal and correct. In fact, on a cold day when the air is dense, near sea level (and for a fair bit of altitude above that), you can very easily overboost the engine. In fact, under the right conditions, you can probably pull pretty close to 45" or so of manifold pressure. This is perfectly normal for supercharged (as the Beaver is) engines and turbocharged engines (there is a difference between the two, but the end result is essentially the same for our purposes here). The FSX Beavers (Aerosoft or default) mimic that feature of the real machine very well. One of the first things I had to learn when stepping from the 185 to the Beaver was to be very careful about applying power - both in terms of how fast and how much. You never wanted to exceed the redline on the manifold pressure gauge at any time in flight, unless of course you enjoy watching pistons flying in all different directions as they exit the cylinders . So in fact, while you have extra power available, you can only use that to get higher, not off the ground faster.The proper procedure for power management in the Beaver is to slowly (takes about 5 to 8 seconds) apply power until you have 36.5" (redline) of manifold pressure. No more than that. The minute the floats/wheels/skis/whatever are off the ground (be that lake, snow, whatever), you immediately set flaps to Climb then simultaneously pull the throttle AND prop back until you have 30" and 2000 RPM. You don't wait until you have 500 feet or so like with many modern planes before coming back on the power. It was only extremely rarely that I ever left the power at max rated (36.5" / 2300 rpm) for longer than that, and that was because I was coming out of an extremely short lake with a heavy load and needed to clear trees that I wouldn't have if I had come back on the power right away. Typically if I did leave it up, the engineer would give me royal hell on the next inspection :(. Anyway, you leave the flaps set to Climb until you are at altitude (which usually isn't all that high in a Beaver unless you are in mountains and having to get over them - note - unlike the FSX Beavers, the real thing won't climb if you don't have flaps set to Climb - it will just slow down as you pull the nose up). Once you reach cruise altitude, you then get the flaps to UP, and come back on the power to something like 27" and 1800 rpm or so (roughly). On landing, you really don't want to come full back on the power until you are in the flare. These engines are really prone to shock cooling, so leave some power on as you slow down for approach. The Beaver will slow quite quickly as there is nothing streamlined about it, so just hold the nose up and come back to about 15" MP and it should get down to flap speed pretty quickly. Once there, get your flaps to Climb, then to Takeoff as you get closer. For short lakes, extend them one more time to Landing. That will give you a ton of drag and you should never need more than that. If you do, the lake is too short, and while you might get in, you probably won't get out again. As you are going into the flare, carry some power and trim up a whole lot. Those flaps are hugely effective and you can run out of elevator before you get into the landing attitude if you don't trim up and hold a bit of power into the flare (running out of elevator means that you'll have full up elevator but that won't be enough to bring the nose up to the landing attitude - land nose low on floats and you are going swimming!). Once you are in the landing attitude, come full back on the power and let the aircraft settle onto the water. Hold your elevator full aft, even while doing a slow taxi (not so important in the sim, but in real life you keep the spray out of the prop that way, which will extend your prop life a whole bunch). Never, ever use the Full flap position except in an emergency. I tried it once on the real machine, but I needed a good burst of power and a huge amount of nose-up trim to get the airplane to flare enough. As I say, in an emergency you can use it, but chances are you aren't going to takeoff again out of any place that short that required a full flap position.OK, hope that helps. The above applies to the real machine, the default FSX version and the default airplane. Fire away with any questions you have and I'll try to answer best I can.Glenn

May I ask what value you assigned to the flaps scaler? I find the quick pitch up very annoying and difficult to respond to also...Thanks...Steve

Steve - the real machine's flaps are hydraulic. The real machine will also pitch up quite a lot when you first extend flaps because you are increasing the camber a whole bunch. My recommendation would be to simply slow the flap extension/retraction time down a bit (should be in the aircraft.cfg in the flaps section) since how fast they go up or down in real life depends on how fast you pump the handle. To change the flap scalar will change the basic handling of the machine, and I highly recommend you not do that if you want a realistic experience.Hope that helps,Glenn

Nice pictures...

Thanks Cameron :(

Wow, Glenn, Thanks for this bunch of information. It makes me the procedueres on the Beaver very clear and I´ll definitely fly a bit more often with her through PNW. But one Thing you wrote sounds a bit strang to me. You wrote: "The minute the floats/wheels/skis/whatever are off the ground (be that lake, snow, whatever), you immediately set flaps to Climb...". Does this mean that you take off without flaps and only in the air they get deployed. Is this correct?

Wow, Glenn, Thanks for this bunch of information. It makes me the procedueres on the Beaver very clear and I´ll definitely fly a bit more often with her through PNW. But one Thing you wrote sounds a bit strang to me. You wrote: "The minute the floats/wheels/skis/whatever are off the ground (be that lake, snow, whatever), you immediately set flaps to Climb...". Does this mean that you take off without flaps and only in the air they get deployed. Is this correct?

If you look at the picture sequence that Glenn provided earlier in this thread, you will see the correct procedure. Start the takeoff with the flaps set to the Takeoff position, then as soon as your floats/wheel/skis are off the ground, set the flaps to the Climb position where they will remain until you hit cruise altitude (where of coarse the flaps are set to be fully retracted).Regards, Mike Mann

If you look at the picture sequence that Glenn provided earlier in this thread, you will see the correct procedure. Start the takeoff with the flaps set to the Takeoff position, then as soon as your floats/wheel/skis are off the ground, set the flaps to the Climb position where they will remain until you hit cruise altitude (where of coarse the flaps are set to be fully retracted).Regards, Mike Mann

Ah, thanks. I forgot that she has a takeoff flaps position. Now everything is understood. I can´t wait to take her for ride but I have to work on several things prior to this. :(

OK, confusion understandable if you aren't familiar with both :(. In fact, both the Aerosoft Beaver and the default Beaver are very, very similar. Both have the same operating parameters, and both have about the same feel in flight, power settings, etc. So if you are talking about one, you are talking about both.Insofar as the available power goes, yes, what you are seeing is normal and correct. In fact, on a cold day when the air is dense, near sea level (and for a fair bit of altitude above that), you can very easily overboost the engine. In fact, under the right conditions, you can probably pull pretty close to 45" or so of manifold pressure. This is perfectly normal for supercharged (as the Beaver is) engines and turbocharged engines (there is a difference between the two, but the end result is essentially the same for our purposes here). The FSX Beavers (Aerosoft or default) mimic that feature of the real machine very well. One of the first things I had to learn when stepping from the 185 to the Beaver was to be very careful about applying power - both in terms of how fast and how much. You never wanted to exceed the redline on the manifold pressure gauge at any time in flight, unless of course you enjoy watching pistons flying in all different directions as they exit the cylinders . So in fact, while you have extra power available, you can only use that to get higher, not off the ground faster.The proper procedure for power management in the Beaver is to slowly (takes about 5 to 8 seconds) apply power until you have 36.5" (redline) of manifold pressure. No more than that. The minute the floats/wheels/skis/whatever are off the ground (be that lake, snow, whatever), you immediately set flaps to Climb then simultaneously pull the throttle AND prop back until you have 30" and 2000 RPM. You don't wait until you have 500 feet or so like with many modern planes before coming back on the power. It was only extremely rarely that I ever left the power at max rated (36.5" / 2300 rpm) for longer than that, and that was because I was coming out of an extremely short lake with a heavy load and needed to clear trees that I wouldn't have if I had come back on the power right away. Typically if I did leave it up, the engineer would give me royal hell on the next inspection :(. Anyway, you leave the flaps set to Climb until you are at altitude (which usually isn't all that high in a Beaver unless you are in mountains and having to get over them - note - unlike the FSX Beavers, the real thing won't climb if you don't have flaps set to Climb - it will just slow down as you pull the nose up). Once you reach cruise altitude, you then get the flaps to UP, and come back on the power to something like 27" and 1800 rpm or so (roughly). On landing, you really don't want to come full back on the power until you are in the flare. These engines are really prone to shock cooling, so leave some power on as you slow down for approach. The Beaver will slow quite quickly as there is nothing streamlined about it, so just hold the nose up and come back to about 15" MP and it should get down to flap speed pretty quickly. Once there, get your flaps to Climb, then to Takeoff as you get closer. For short lakes, extend them one more time to Landing. That will give you a ton of drag and you should never need more than that. If you do, the lake is too short, and while you might get in, you probably won't get out again. As you are going into the flare, carry some power and trim up a whole lot. Those flaps are hugely effective and you can run out of elevator before you get into the landing attitude if you don't trim up and hold a bit of power into the flare (running out of elevator means that you'll have full up elevator but that won't be enough to bring the nose up to the landing attitude - land nose low on floats and you are going swimming!). Once you are in the landing attitude, come full back on the power and let the aircraft settle onto the water. Hold your elevator full aft, even while doing a slow taxi (not so important in the sim, but in real life you keep the spray out of the prop that way, which will extend your prop life a whole bunch). Never, ever use the Full flap position except in an emergency. I tried it once on the real machine, but I needed a good burst of power and a huge amount of nose-up trim to get the airplane to flare enough. As I say, in an emergency you can use it, but chances are you aren't going to takeoff again out of any place that short that required a full flap position.OK, hope that helps. The above applies to the real machine, the default FSX version and the default airplane. Fire away with any questions you have and I'll try to answer best I can.GlennSteve - the real machine's flaps are hydraulic. The real machine will also pitch up quite a lot when you first extend flaps because you are increasing the camber a whole bunch. My recommendation would be to simply slow the flap extension/retraction time down a bit (should be in the aircraft.cfg in the flaps section) since how fast they go up or down in real life depends on how fast you pump the handle. To change the flap scalar will change the basic handling of the machine, and I highly recommend you not do that if you want a realistic experience.Hope that helps,GlennThanks Cameron :(

Brilliant idea on increasing the flap travel time...Really makes a difference in the "pop up" characteristics...Used it on several other planes too...Thanks so much...Steve