Propeller reverse and mixture control.

[Vantskruv 11]

I skipped the tutorials, as I personally hate the AFE (I don't trust him :Talk to the Hand: ), and after some test and trial without reading any manual I did successfully start up the engines. I did one mistake with the first engine, overheating the carburetor air. But I learned to handle the carb levers and get temperatures between yellow and red marking, slowly increase the levers while in flight. Also I learned to adjust the cowls to get optimal cylinder temperature (if I'm right it is 200 C). I did two flights with great success, not damaging any engines. Yet a great aircraft indeed.

Though I have some questions.

 

1. How do you reverse the propeller pitch? The red handle above the propeller panel (in the center panel between throttle levers) is not possible to move. Tried click on it but nothing happens. After that, I did try setup a joystick button to propeller reverse toggle without any success.

 

2. When to set autorich and lean positions on the mixtures levers? Is it decided by start, taxi, takeoff, climb and so on. Or is it more complicated depending on airtemperature, enginetemperature, throttle position?

 

3. Can you affect motor oil temperature also, or is it only cylinder temp and carburetor temp important to monitor and adjust for?

 

I've some more questions, i.e. fuel management, but I take them for later. The above is the most important right now for me to understand.

 

Thank you PMDG for a great aircraft.

[TheFinn88 13]

hi there!

 

1. Make sure your throttle levers are in idle position, then move the reverse handle back, and confirm  reverse pitch by the 4 amber lights underneath the reverse handle. Apply reverse-power by either pulling the levers in the virtual cockpit more back, or move your hardware axis forward (as you would normally accelerate). Because in reverse-pitch mode your throttle axis will move the in-sim levers backwards out of idle position. To return into normal pitch, again set throttle to idle, then move the reverse handle back forward.

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

I skipped the tutorials, as I personally hate the AFE (I don't trust him ), and after some test and trial without reading any manual I did successfully start up the engines. I did one mistake with the first engine, overheating the carburetor air.

 

No offense, but, shouldn't trust be placed in the "person" who knows how to do the things required to properly operate the aircraft? You'll have to forgive me for a bit, but hating the very thing that would help you solve all of these questions and problems seems so...arcane and backward...

 

 

 

But I learned to handle the carb levers and get temperatures between yellow and red marking, slowly increase the levers while in flight.

 

False. Carb ice isn't a problem unless you have what is required for ice: cold + water. Beyond that, temperatures below the yellow band do not require heat, either. Again, the AFE would've taken care of this for you in the proper fashion.

 

 

 

1. How do you reverse the propeller pitch? The red handle above the propeller panel (in the center panel between throttle levers) is not possible to move. Tried click on it but nothing happens. After that, I did try setup a joystick button to propeller reverse toggle without any success.

 

Throttle at idle. Then move the lever.

 

 

 

2. When to set autorich and lean positions on the mixtures levers? Is it decided by start, taxi, takeoff, climb and so on. Or is it more complicated depending on airtemperature, enginetemperature, throttle position?

 

Could've watched the AFE to determine this, but...AUTO RICH at just about any time but cruise.

 

 

 

3. Can you affect motor oil temperature also, or is it only cylinder temp and carburetor temp important to monitor and adjust for?

 

Oil temps will vary based on your airspeed, throttle setting, and a few other conditions.

[Vantskruv 11]

Thanks for both of your answers.

 

Though I'm still unable to move the reverse handle. Even at throttle IDLE settings. I've been trying to click and drag, also pressing the prop-reverse button assigned on my joystick. So either it is a bug or I'm doing something wrong.

 

 

 

No offense, but, shouldn't trust be placed in the "person" who knows how to do the things required to properly operate the aircraft? You'll have to forgive me for a bit, but hating the very thing that would help you solve all of these questions and problems seems so...arcane and backward...

 

Kyle, I meant to be sarcastic. I do not hate (I guess I chose the wrong word, and mistakenly being taken too serious), and AFE is helpful of course. But I'm a person who just want to play for himself, I do not like learning by watching, I want to learn by doing, or be told what to do.

AFE does not help at all in learning things (maybe a small fragment), as you only get audible hints of what he is doing. He is not instructor, just a work reliefer.

[vololiberista 205]

Kyle, I meant to be sarcastic. I do not hate (I guess I chose the wrong word, and mistakenly being taken too serious), and AFE is helpful of course. But I'm a person who just want to play for himself, I do not like learning by watching, I want to learn by doing, or be told what to do.

AFE does not help at all in learning things (maybe a small fragment), as you only get audible hints of what he is doing. He is not instructor, just a work reliefer.

You might find reading the tutorials useful!

[Vantskruv 11]

You might find reading the tutorials useful!

 

No I refuse!

 

 

Kidding here, I read through relative fast, but there is no information on maneuvering the prop reversers. Most of the tutorials is only about navigating and handling the autopilot, which I master well.

[scandinavian13 5,192]

Though I'm still unable to move the reverse handle. Even at throttle IDLE settings. I've been trying to click and drag, also pressing the prop-reverse button assigned on my joystick. So either it is a bug or I'm doing something wrong.

 

The only other person I found with a similar issue had the throttle mapped to multiple levers. I'm guessing one or more of them was sending an indication above idle, which would be a null zone issue.

 

 

 

Kyle, I meant to be sarcastic. I do not hate (I guess I chose the wrong word, and mistakenly being taken too serious), and AFE is helpful of course. But I'm a person who just want to play for himself, I do not like learning by watching, I want to learn by doing, or be told what to do.

AFE does not help at all in learning things (maybe a small fragment), as you only get audible hints of what he is doing. He is not instructor, just a work reliefer.

 

That makes a little more sense. All the same, a few uses while paying attention can help you to understand the work flow. While an instructor would walk you through the process to help acquire knowledge faster, that doesn't mean that observational learning isn't effective (this is how we all initially learned to speak, as an example).

 

Then again, as someone who created many an unintentional crater around Merril C. Meigs as a kid with FS5.1, I can completely understand shirking reading and taking the trail and error approach.

[Vantskruv 11]

The only other person I found with a similar issue had the throttle mapped to multiple levers. I'm guessing one or more of them was sending an indication above idle, which would be a null zone issue.

 

 

 

 

That makes a little more sense. All the same, a few uses while paying attention can help you to understand the work flow. While an instructor would walk you through the process to help acquire knowledge faster, that doesn't mean that observational learning isn't effective (this is how we all initially learned to speak, as an example).

 

Then again, as someone who created many an unintentional crater around Merril C. Meigs as a kid with FS5.1, I can completely understand shirking reading and taking the trail and error approach.

 

 

No problem, everyone of us are different humans with different qualities and needs.

 

Anyway, I'm using the Thrustmaster Warthog setup and Saitek Rudder Pedals. Also I'm using TrackIR.

 

The throttle base do have 3 axis, where each axis is assigned to:

* Throttle (which moves all the virtual throttles)

* Prop

* Carb heat

 

The joystick has, of course, two axis and is assigned to:

* Pitch

* Roll

 

The rudder pedal has three axis assigned to:

* Yaw

* Left toe brake

* Right toe brake

 

I do not have any axis mapped to multiple functions, X-Plane is only able to map one axis to one function, though maybe I do not know better? Correct me then if I'm wrong. I'll continue to try to solve the problem. At the bottom I'm running the Thrustmaster TARGET GUI. But I cannot imagine that would be the problem, as it only provides raw data to X-Plane, but I'll continue test and trial.

 

Thanks for your support Kyle.

 

UPDATE

Anyway, as a required law. After a minimum amount of written words and time used by troublesolving, you find the culprit. As always....

 

I did recalibrate the input axes in X-Plane, and now I'm able to maneuver the prop reverse handle.

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

 

I do not have any axis mapped to multiple functions, X-Plane is only able to map one axis to one function, though maybe I do not know better? Correct me then if I'm wrong. I'll continue to try to solve the problem. At the bottom I'm running the Thrustmaster TARGET GUI. But I cannot imagine that would be the problem, as it only provides raw data to X-Plane, but I'll continue test and trial.

 

In the earlier post, I was explaining a situation where someone had one throttle lever assigned to one throttle lever in the plane, for four different levers on his hardware (lever 1 - throttle 1, lever 2 - throttle 2, etc.). One of those levers was showing above idle, so it wouldn't go into reverse.

 

Have you calibrated your hardware?

[Vantskruv 11]

As stated in post above (the last lines).

[scandinavian13 5,192]

As stated in post above (the last lines).

 

haha - great way to put it, too:

 

 

 

UPDATE

Anyway, as a required law. After a minimum amount of written words and time used by troublesolving, you find the culprit. As always....

[Vantskruv 11]

Actually, it happened again. I needed to recalibrate again. I think it would be nice to set a little higher threshold to allow for prop reverse (just to filter out some axis difference).

 

Thanks!

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

 

(just to filter out some axis difference).

 

That's what null zone is for.

[Vantskruv 11]

Sorry for late reply, I've been busy flying the DC6 and the Tu154, I cannot get enough learning all the aircraft.

 

 

 

That's what null zone is for.

 

I have not found any way to set any nullzone for throttle in X-Plane. It seems this is possible only for yaw, pitch and roll and it is mainly to create a nullzone in this center point of axis. In this case, there are no nullzones definable for endpoints of axes, and I do not recall any software offer settings for endpoint nullzones.

 

It seems everytime I want to fly the DC6, I need to recalibrate the throttle axis. I've never had this problem with any aircraft before. It is not fun being unsure if pitch reverse will work when landing on a short runway (though it is exciting ).

 

So I still stand my point, throttle axis endpoint bufferzone for allowing pitch reverse should be increased.

 

:p0304:

[tarakanbg 5]

.... and I do not recall any software offer settings for endpoint nullzones....

 

 

It's doable with FlyWithLua and a custom lua script that will intercept the throttle axis raw position and amend it with an offset. I'm using a similar approach to smoothen the values of my rather noisy throttle quadrants.