No you wouldn't use the trim switches for CWS Tim, you do indeed just move the yoke.   It should feel quite similar to a (primitive) FBW system;  gently move the yoke, the pitch will change, let go, the pitch will be held.

It sounds like on you're side, the pitch axis is somehow getting 'locked' in to FSX's default "Alt" setting. (Whereby VS would be the only way to adjust pitch).

I wonder if you're using hardware, or key commands, when setting the A/P?

Certainly for me, I just manually turn on the AP servo switches on the glareshield, and then select Heading mode, or Nav mode;  the aircraft turns to the desired lateral direction and I would then have full CWS control for pitch, via the yoke, right until I select "Alt Hold" (again via mouse on the panel itself).

Well, it hardly matters, because even with the APU on, I lose power in the time it takes to complete catering with AES, and that's all she wrote for that flight. I'm about to conclude there are just too many things wrong with this airplane to tolerate. I've been a Captain Sim supporter for a long time, and have always found a way to (mostly) make things work. Now here comes an airplane that I really like, and want to work, and have spent considerable time and patience on. It still fails in the most basic ways (e.g. staying turned on once started). Not to mention careless errors like the fuel total in kilograms, etc.) I'm done with it. If Captain Sim at long last ever fixes the d+++ed thing, I'll be happy. Time to uninstall lest I once more be tempted into a frustrating waste of time. Milviz may be an eyesore and have a few issues of its own, but at least you can fly the thing.

I don't have that problem (with APU / power source) either.  It seems you have some localized problems.  Anyway, it was just an attempt to help but it sounds like you've had your fill of the CS737.

The milviz one feels like a Cessna when it comes to the rudder in my opinion.

At cruise speed, push the rudder fully and it will spin inverted and go in an awkward stall and start frisbeeing. I don't think that's how a real 737 handles.

Actually, it does. That huge rudder is rarely used while in flight. It is used primarily when necessary to perform a cross-wind approach and landing.

 

As for the V2 cut, I'll just say that I've never tried that myself...

 

Finally, Tim that is not "green mold..." It is where the original Boeing Gray paint has been worn down to the green primer layer. On a personal note I'm not really a big fan of the extreme wear and tear myself, although honestly having spent several hours in the retired Southwest 737-200C at the museum in Wichita in the company of one it's last Captains, I can confirm that while not quite as worn as the Milviz version, it's pretty darned close! In fact, that retired Capitain is a proud owner of this product, flying only the Southwest livery naturally... :Big Grin:

 

For a "sanity check" the latest installer version is:

FSX:     MilViz_B737-200_v2.140618

P3Dv2: MilViz_B737-200_P3Dv2_v2.140621

 

BTW, if you are in ALT HLD mode, simply pushing or pulling on the yoke should cause the solenoid to release ALT HLD and enable CWS automatically. The same applies to HDG HLD and HDG SEL modes. Turning the yoke should cause the solenoid holding the paddle to release automatically.

Actually, it does. That huge rudder is rarely used while in flight. It is used primarily when necessary to perform a cross-wind approach and landing.

 

As for the V2 cut, I'll just say that I've never tried that myself...

Even on cruise the 737 becomes uncontrollable when one engine fails.

 

Try it yourself, have everything configured like it's supposed to, and shut one engine. The enormous yawing movement to the dead engine is unrealistic.

The plane will yaw, but not freaking 45 degrees.

 

Only with the yaw damper disabled and nearly full rudder i'm able to get some control, but as the plane goes ANY slower than 200 knots the rudder isn't effective enough anymore and the plane starts flying sideways and crashes.

 

It's unrealistic as even with 1 engine failed it should be able to land fine. 

They did in real life too.

It's unrealistic as even with 1 engine failed it should be able to land fine. 

They did in real life too.

As far as I know, they still land fine in real life. FDE is not my area of competence, so I'll have to refer this to Bernt Stole, the gentleman who set up this FDE for the 737-200Combi.

As far as I know, they still land fine in real life. FDE is not my area of competence, so I'll have to refer this to Bernt Stole, the gentleman who set up this FDE for the 737-200Combi.

The only thing i know is that you apparently should not throw your groceries into the engine during takeoff, no matter how bad it tastes

I was not being spiteful toward anyone, and thanks for the advice and other opinions. But the power loss is hardly an isolated problem. If I'm not mistaken there is even a gauge a user made to fix it, but I have never had much luck with those kinds of mods. The dead battery issue is a long-time Captain Sim problem that they never seem to have fixed in their 727 and 737, at least.

 

I've noticed that the primary experience with this hobby for me is frustration. Some of it I can lay at the feet of some devs. Some of it is no doubt my fault, although I keep my expectations modest and don't over-tweak. What brings me here today is frackin' "greyout," I can see everything frozen, but there is a grey film obscuring it, with only the mouse cursor wheel spinning, So instead of flying, I'm yet again here looking for the solution to some stupid problem.

 

I'm going to go buy a model train set.

 

The alt hold does disengage when you manual change pitch control, but, as I said, I have deflected the thing all the way forward and it WILL NOT let me control the a/c with CWS, until it breaks free and sends us all into a spectacular dive. Really, who needs that? Maybe an isolated problem; I dunno. I can only honestly report what I experience with a product.

 

Well, back to spending the rest of my afternoon trying to fix yet another problem.

I was not being spiteful toward anyone, and thanks for the advice and other opinions. But the power loss is hardly an isolated problem. If I'm not mistaken there is even a gauge a user made to fix it, but I have never had much luck with those kinds of mods. The dead battery issue is a long-time Captain Sim problem that they never seem to have fixed in their 727 and 737, at least.

 

Hey Tim,

I feel your frustration. I had battery ( power loss ) issues until I installed Paul's battery fix. Ever since, in ground operations, APU, or using generator power, I haven't had one power loss. Work's great for me. And the CWS works just fine as well, just as advertised. Ever since I installed Acceleration, my 727 and 737 AP's both work great with no issues. I can't remember if I installed an A/P patch in the 737, there were so many.

For the CWS, I set the servos and when in heading mode, turn my heading bug to the desire course and sure enough it tracks it.  Same applies for nav mode. Picks up localizer and GS for landing perfectly in APP mode as well.  If you need to change your pitch, simply pull up or  push down on the yoke and let go. It will respond to the pressure you applied and hold there until further commanded. Once it captures the GS in APP mode, it will turn off the "alt hold" automatically and start descending. Will hold a heading, then auto steer to capture to localizer once it's realized.

Still a truck load of stuff that needs to be fixed though. If you have any patience left, take a second look at the instructions on all those patches and the AP. They all work great for me. No excuse for CS not to fix this thing though. They put out SP's for all the models that are still making money, but completely forgot those customers who paid and helped them get to where they are now. Nice way to do business. That's exactly why the $12  paid for the 737 is and will be my last.

 

Cheers,

Brian

Doesn't the everlasting battery fix in FSUIPC take care of the CS dead battery issue?

 

I don't anything at all about the CS version, but for the Milviz version I used the FSX APU feature and it seems to work quite well.

I haven't installed FSUIPC, although that's a good point. As to Paul's fix, which one are we talking about? There is a four-in-one that has a battery charger, the yaw damper light, and a couple of others. I backed out of installing it when the instructions differed slightly in the filename of one of the files.

 

I am amazed that seem to be the only one having a CWS that "won't let go" and let me change pitch. That is the real deal breaker because sudden plunges just takes me right out of the realism, not to mention the danger of overstressing the aircraft. Who knows? It's no big deal to reinstall, and I kept my files with the liveries, aircraft config, and Bud's mods. I'll probably get into a forgiving mood and reinstall at least the -200.

I recall various reports of CWS problems but was never able to replicate them. If there's one thing working fine on the CS737, it's the CWS (for me). A ton of suggestions and assumptions surrounded the possible solutions and I guess the most commonly used one later was "don't use it". Not exactly a solved problem. :mellow:

 

Re: the electrical issue. There is a parameter in the aircraft.cfg which will always enable power, always. Still, another workaround instead of a solved mystery.

 

In case you need it. Head to the [electrical] section and add/check.

electric_always_available=1

CoolIP, yes, I tried the old electric_always_available=1 with no luck. Fr. Bill's suggestion to use FSUIPC's infinite battery seems to have helped. At least it gave me 20 minutes or so on ground power until I started the APU. So that may be one problem down.

 

I think I have discovered something with the CWS. (Control Wheel Steering? I've also seen Control With Stick.) Anyway, when using it, it wants you to center the column in between inputs. I even pull my joystick back just a bit. Then it seems to accept a different command. That might be the trick. If that's what you guys are doing, then I bet it is. But it is still fairly unpredictable, or maybe I just don't have the "magic touch" yet.

 

It doesn't do a perfect job holding altitude, so I would want to use the altitude hold knob for that. It also doesn't want to hold altitude when I try to combine an existing CWS pitch input with a roll input. It wants to lose altitude in a way similar to an ordinary hand-flown bank without some back pressure on the yoke.

 

If I could solve just these two problems -- the dead battery and the CWS -- I would consider it good enough to enjoy, mainly because there's no other good two-man crew classic besides the DC-9. (As I mentioned, the Milviz just doesn't tick my graphics box.)

 

(I'm sorry 737-200, you're just so cute, I can't stay mad at you, if you'll just throw me a bone here.)

 

EDIT: I did a big circuit around KSEA, using only CWS, until turning the autopilot off on approach. I'll say that I think I'm onto something with returning the column to center before a new input. But even that is inconsistent. Sometimes it will decide to descend into terrain unless I intervene. On the long "downwind leg" (about 40 miles) CWS lost from 5000 t0 3900, and it took effort to simply get it to fly at 5000 feet. It went up to 6000, and wouldn't behave even when I centered the column.

 

I guess I'm encouraged enough to keep working on it despite the flaws.

 

 

If I could solve just these two problems

Seems like we are supposed to believe that a service pack will fix (not only those) things. ^_^

 

More seriously, I think that the state of those two aircraft is the best you can get when it comes to somehow detailed and nice to look at renditions.

 

It [CWS] doesn't do a perfect job holding altitude

That's by design, it aims at holding the pitch attitude. You are correct to use the alt hold knob/switch for keeping a certain altitude once you've reached it.

Another circuit. No matter how I finesse it, sometimes it does not want to stop what it's doing and do something else. So I want to climb to 5000 feet. It's 7400 ft before I manage to get the CWS to "let go." (Usually by pulling the stick in the opposite direction, causing a precipitous dive when it decides to break loose.) On approach, I wanted to descend to 4000 ft. It kept on going no matter what I did with the column, right down to 3000 and headed for the ground until I turned the AP off entirely.

 

I'll keep fooling with it for awhile, but it really burns me up. CS had made so much progress. They had their 757 all fixed, at least as far as I was concerned, they came out with a wonderful L1011. BUt they revert to form with a grossly broken 737 and the bubble of good will is burst. The Milviz was on SP5! The 737 is still on 1.0 while we're strung along with promises that they're releasing a fix for all this. I don't know of anyone who is really expecting it.

 

At least the CS 737 has detailed lavatory valves.