COMMANDER 114 ISSUES

[Ron Attwood 3,499]

It sure does. I hadn't noticed that. I wonder if it could be fixed in the .cfg file? Bummer.Cheers,Fritz

Praise be! I'm not alone. :( Anyone else?

[Guest bstolle]

I experience this too but it's hard to discover as this occurs way out of the normal prop range and the prop does NOT feather!To stay in the green RPM range I can pull the prop lever only back to about 80%. Anything below the green range isn't approved (and doesn't make sense).Don't know the prop of the real Commander but in this case at idle the drag of the blades (too high pitch and too low RPM) is so high that it just stalls the engine. Like you want to drive with idle and the 5th gear in your car. However the fix is easy. Open the cfg file and scroll down to the section[propeller]and change the RPM from 500 to 800min_gov_rpm = 800 RegardsBernt

[fritzreinhart 0]

Thanks, Bernt. What you say makes perfect sense. I just haven't noticed that particular behaviour before. If the prop doesn't feather then it sounds like it acts the way it's supposed to. Makes it hard to glide though. :( Cheers,Fritz

[Guest bstolle]

Doesn't make sense to put a feathering prop onto a single engine plane. Once the engine quits you are going down. No need to reduce the drag for 'performance reasons'You might arrive at the crash scene a few seconds or minutes later but that's not worth the effort, LOLBest regardsBernt

[Ron Attwood 3,499]

Strange. So is your best guess it's supposed to be like that? I'd rather not change configs just to suit me. It would be very interesting to find out. Carenado! Get out here. :biggrin:EDIT: Reading your post again Bernt it looks like common sense to edit the config file. :(

[gbk1 1]

Doesn't make sense to put a feathering prop onto a single engine plane. Once the engine quits you are going down. No need to reduce the drag for 'performance reasons'You might arrive at the crash scene a few seconds or minutes later but that's not worth the effort, LOL

Thats a good point !!!

[Guest bstolle]

Strange. So is your best guess it's supposed to be like that? I'd rather not change configs just to suit me. It would be very interesting to find out.

It's definitely not unrealistic to keep the RPM at 800 as 500 seems to be too low in any case.

[fritzreinhart 0]

It's definitely not unrealistic to keep the RPM at 800 as 500 seems to be too low in any case.

If my automotive experience is anything to go by, 500 rpm idle speed is too low for a fuel injected engine. It will load up with unburned fuel and die. 800 is the usual and I've seen many that prefer 1000 rpm.Cheers,Fritz

[Ron Attwood 3,499]

If my automotive experience is anything to go by, 500 rpm idle speed is too low for a fuel injected engine. It will load up with unburned fuel and die. 800 is the usual and I've seen many that prefer 1000 rpm.Cheers,Fritz

This gets more interesting. As I understand it, the setting of 500rpm would cause the engine to die, so it's realistic...as far as it goes. In real life the engine wouldn't be allowed to idle that slowly, right? Therefore it's not realistic! :(

[fritzreinhart 0]

This gets more interesting. As I understand it, the setting of 500rpm would cause the engine to die, so it's realistic...as far as it goes. In real life the engine wouldn't be allowed to idle that slowly, right? Therefore it's not realistic! :(

Well, it would be hard to get the engine to idle at 500 rpm in RL. It certainly wouldn't be done on purpose. :( Cheers,Fritz

[Guest BeaverDriver]

What you say would be correct for the Commander and most/all other fuel injected engines Fritz. However, some aircraft will idle very low, such as the Beaver and Otter. They will go down as low as 500 with both mags running, but I've had them down to 350 to 400 with running on 1 mag and the carb heat on. Now, this is on the ground with no slipstream going through the prop (would never ever get it down that low in the air!!). The reason for making it idle so low is that on floats in a high wind, it can be dangerous to try and turn out of/into wind, or you may want to back onto a beach rather than trying to beach then turning it around by hand. So, what you do is face into wind, drop full flaps and get the engine idling as low as possible. If the wind is strong enough (and if it isn't, you need to cut the engine entirely), you will sail backwards, but still retain some steering control and how fast you are going backwards by use of the engine, until you make contact with the beach. I've often used this technique and it can even be done getting into a dock if you have a bit of experience. It's quite effective, but you have to have an engine that will idle down very low (radials typically have a very low compression ratio) or you can't use your engine at all as it will start moving you forward instead of allowing you to sail backwards.FWIW.

[fritzreinhart 0]

Oh, sure, a normally aspirated engine will idle at 500 rpm without any trouble. In fact 500/600 rpm would be considered normal. With a bit of fooling around you can easily get them to idle at 200 rpm. Cheers,Fritz

[andy1975 13]

What you say would be correct for the Commander and most/all other fuel injected engines Fritz. However, some aircraft will idle very low, such as the Beaver and Otter. They will go down as low as 500 with both mags running, but I've had them down to 350 to 400 with running on 1 mag and the carb heat on. Now, this is on the ground with no slipstream going through the prop (would never ever get it down that low in the air!!). The reason for making it idle so low is that on floats in a high wind, it can be dangerous to try and turn out of/into wind, or you may want to back onto a beach rather than trying to beach then turning it around by hand. So, what you do is face into wind, drop full flaps and get the engine idling as low as possible. If the wind is strong enough (and if it isn't, you need to cut the engine entirely), you will sail backwards, but still retain some steering control and how fast you are going backwards by use of the engine, until you make contact with the beach. I've often used this technique and it can even be done getting into a dock if you have a bit of experience. It's quite effective, but you have to have an engine that will idle down very low (radials typically have a very low compression ratio) or you can't use your engine at all as it will start moving you forward instead of allowing you to sail backwards.FWIW.

Wow,thank you very much for explaining such a technique, very informative! :( Cheers,Andreas

[Guest BeaverDriver]

Thanks Andreas. Glad it was of some use. Sailing is a fairly common thing in seaplanes and a very useful technique to learn. With or without the engine, you do have a certain ability to steer via the rudder or water rudders, but you have to remember to get those up before hitting the really shallow water or you'll take them off when you hit bottom.

[Warrior30114 0]

Has anyone else had any problems with their tachometer readings? I'm in the habit of logging my flight time using the Hobb's (if the plane has one) or by using Tach time and the Commander isn't logging it right. I just did a flight and noted that the tach read .5 before start up, after a flight of .8 hours I noted after shut down the tach read .3. I can see that it's not advancing the hour dial just the tenth of an hour dial since, considering that the ending time should have read 1.3 hours. Any ideas of how to fix this little problem?No other gripes from me, else-wise she's a wonderful plane!