FOLKS I think Carenado has risen to a new level

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

 

 

Just to update that having bought the plane now, the IAS is properly functional. It does not use the FSX Autothrottle (as the SR22 did), it correctly adjusts pitch to maintain aircraft speed. There is one issue with it; when IAS is engaged, the aircraft always moves to a vertical speed of 500 FPM, before it will correctly adjust pitch to maintain the airspeed when the IAS button was pressed. Shame about this "going to 500 FPM first" bug as, other than this, the IAS mode is very effective at adjusting pitch to maintain speed. Good job Carenado.

 

Is that both up and down?  E.g. If you select an airspeed above your current speed, does it default to 500 FPM down? 

[~Craig~ 10]

Is that both up and down?  E.g. If you select an airspeed above your current speed, does it default to 500 FPM down? 

 

Well there is no way to select airspeeds as it were Gregg (which is true to life of the real unit).  With the KMC321 autopilot in the PC-12, the IAS mode just holds the speed that you were at when it was activated. There is no gauge showing the selected speed.   However you can make small adjustments by pressing the 'Nose Up' and 'Nose Down' buttons*  But there's no numeric indication of the speed.

 

But in answer to your question, yes it does this 'snap to 500 fpm first' bug in both directions.   So let's say you're in VS mode and the speed is 150, and you press IAS, the VS will always go to +500 FPM just for a split second, then it will revert to the correct VS that maintains 150.   (and adjust it dynamically to maintain 150).

 

.....and when doing this in the descent, similarly it will fleetingly (but annoyingly) 'snap' to -500 fpm before it then moves to the correct pitch that then maintains the speed very accurately.

 

I suspect there's a little error in their code for their new IAS mode that is starting the pitch calculation at +/- 500 FPM for some reason;   rather than at the VS at the time of IAS engagement.

 

 

*these are wrongly reversed in the Carenado; so pressing 'nose down' puts the nose up and decreases selected speed, and selecting 'nose up' lowers the nose and increases speed ....... you gotta' love Carenado huh!   

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

 

 

*these are wrongly reversed in the Carenado; so pressing 'nose down' puts the nose up and decreases selected speed, and selecting 'nose up' lowers the nose and increases speed ....... you gotta' love Carenado huh!

 

Sounds like they're using the trim as a 'speed dial'  Down=lower speed, Up=higher speed.  In an airplane with a shared speed dial, like the Q400, it would make perfect sense.

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

However you can make small adjustments by pressing the 'Nose Up' and 'Nose Down' buttons*  But there's no numeric indication of the speed.

 

....

 

 

*these are wrongly reversed in the Carenado; so pressing 'nose down' puts the nose up and decreases selected speed, and selecting 'nose up' lowers the nose and increases speed ....... you gotta' love Carenado huh!   

 

Not sure.. the rocker switch, I believe is "IAS up and IAS down", not "nose up or nose down"..

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

 

 

Not sure.. the rocker switch, I believe is "IAS up and IAS down", not "nose up or nose down"..

 

Looks like it's written on the front of the yoke...somebody unhide it.

[~Craig~ 10]

Not sure.. the rocker switch, I believe is "IAS up and IAS down", not "nose up or nose down"..

 

Ah good point, possibly.    That would be a pretty unusual convention where controlling the Vertical Speed with those buttons would be concerned, but yes that would make sense.

PS.... Gregg - I hope Bert won't mind me sharing that he's completed some fantastic mods now that really increase the realism with the KMC321 autopilot, and it's IAS mode.    Eg.. IAS can now be engaged while 'Alt Arm' in engaged (as per real aircraft), so you get level-off when using IAS, not just VS, as per the real unit.   

 

And as of today, IAS mode can now be used with just the Flight Director engaged; another real world feature.   :smile:

 

Now if he can crack the bug where IAS mode momentarily selects 500 fpm in all cases (before the correct value), then I'll be nominating him to replace Elizabeth II as Head of State of Canada   :wink:

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Just got word from Carenado that they "intentionally set 500 fpm" as the starting point for their IAS controller.. not quite sure where that leaves us.. but you might let them know that starting with the current VS at time of IAS engagement would be more realistic  ^_^

[~Craig~ 10]

Just got word from Carenado that they "intentionally set 500 fpm" as the starting point for their IAS controller.. not quite sure where that leaves us.. but you might let them know that starting with the current VS at time of IAS engagement would be more realistic  ^_^

 

Interesting.  There's no logic to that AP behaviour at all.   There's never a scenario where you'd want a 'default' initial VS associated with an IAS Pitch Hold mode.      It's a little like setting Heading Select and the aircraft always rotating to Heading 090 before it goes to the selected heading    ......... never mind, we are where we are;   you've still achieved some fantastic improvements to the autopilot here Bert.  I'm not sure I would be flying the aircraft if it weren't for the realism improvements and features you've put in there. So thanks.  B) 

 

Bert, do you have a better email contact for Carenado, or do you just go through their main support channel? .... Drop me a PM or Email if you do, and I'll petition them too on this, and send them some reference material on it.    

 

Of course it may be that they have not yet developed how to initiate the IAS mode at a dynamic, changeable (current) value - so had to opt for using a default value.   Even So, I would say 1000 or 1500fpm would work better than 500 fpm.

 

- IAS mode is typically engaged early in the climb (after clean up), where vertical speed values will still be high; typically 1700-2200 feet per min).

 

Cheers,

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

 

 

Just got word from Carenado that they "intentionally set 500 fpm" as the starting point for their IAS controller.. not quite sure where that leaves us.. but you might let them know that starting with the current VS at time of IAS engagement would be more realistic ^_^

 

Interesting...perhaps they are using VS to do the IAS.  I think Craig is right that starting from the current pitch would be the better choice.  Given the way you set it in this aircraft, reading the value from FSX (think it's offset 0578) would make it smoother.

 

Gregg 

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Interesting...perhaps they are using VS to do the IAS.  I think Craig is right that starting from the current pitch would be the better choice.  Given the way you set it in this aircraft, reading the value from FSX (think it's offset 0578) would make it smoother.

 

Gregg 

 

Gregg, they are using pitch..

 

Bert, do you have a better email contact for Carenado, or do you just go through their main support channel? .... Drop me a PM or Email if you do, and I'll petition them too on this, and send them some reference material on it.    

 

 

 

 

"support at carenado dot com"  will get your information to the right people.

 

I have already asked for this, but if you can back up the request with real world facts / material, that will certainly help!

Just got word from Carenado that they "intentionally set 500 fpm" as the starting point for their IAS controller.. not quite sure where that leaves us.. but you might let them know that starting with the current VS at time of IAS engagement would be more realistic  ^_^

 

Maybe the better wording would be to start with "current pitch"

[~Craig~ 10]

 

 

I have already asked for this, but if you can back up the request with real world facts / material, that will certainly help!

 

Done!  :smile:

[CaptKornDog 284]

For those who were asking about the DN/UP rocker switch on the mode controller: it (obviously) controls the vertical axis of the autopilot.  It operates in one of four different ways.

 

-In pitch attitude hold mode, it adjusts aircraft pitch (the rate of the change depends on airspeed)

 

-In IAS hold mode, it adjusts the IAS reference at 0.75 KIAS per second the switch is held.

 

-In altitude hold mode, it adjusts the altitude the autopilot is holding at a rate of up to 500 FPM.  However, it doesn't change the altitude selected on the preselector.  I've rarely (actually, never that I can recall) seen the rocker switch used this way.

 

-In VS hold mode, adjusts the vertical speed at 100 FPM per second the switch is held.  Also does not change the FPM selected on the preselector (when the inner knob is pulled for VS mode).

 

In all of these modes, it's best to think of the rocker switch as a nose down-nose up switch. 

 

Hope that helps.

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Kyle, in IAS mode.. does the "DN" (upper) half of the rocker mean nose down, or decrease speed??

 

This question has come up before and we were not able to come to a clear resolution..

[CaptKornDog 284]

Kyle, in IAS mode.. does the "DN" (upper) half of the rocker mean nose down, or decrease speed??

 

This question has come up before and we were not able to come to a clear resolution..

 

Nose down/increase speed.  Think of it as essentially acting as a vertical trim switch.

 

Still hoping Carenado releases a patch that installs missing fonts for those that don't have many of their recent releases so I can actually fly their plane, try some of these fixes myself, and perform my own systems testing

 

Fixes to the autopilot and engine performance would be huge, like others have reported.  The PT6 certainly is a reliable, responsive engine in the real plane, and relatively easy to manage.  The autopilot isn't perfect but certainly the real one is better than the default FSX logic!

[~Craig~ 10]

In all of these modes, it's best to think of the rocker switch as a nose down-nose up switch. 

 

Nose down/increase speed.  Think of it as essentially acting as a vertical trim switch.

 

Then on this addon it's backwards because if you try climbing in IAS mode, and then press 'DN', the aircraft will pitch up, and the airspeed will go down.

 

Bert and I have been looking at this - hence why he asked the question about whether it is supposed to relate to 'speed' or 'pitch'. 

 

I suspect you're right that it is supposed to relate to pitch (aircraft nose), but within this model, Carenado have reversed the logic and as above, pressing 'DN' actually raises the nose (decreasing speed), and pressing 'UP' lowers the nose (increasing speed).