One bug that makes me kind of angry is the nonworking bowtie indicator in the more modern VC models since it's so glaringly obvious. This is, fortunately, fixable.

 

I also went over the rest of the systems files and made minor modifications to the electrical system. The 10 series' instrument panel in the VC works just fine from battery, i.e. DC power, but the other models require a more potent AC power source, i.e. APU, GPU or engines. Since the emergency inverter is a source for AC power on the real DC-9, I've defined it as a "bridge" between battery and instrument panel to supply electricity so that you can check whether GPU or APU AC power is available.

 

The hydraulic system was overhauled to reflect the real one as possible within the contraints of the model and MSFS. You'll have more failure modes than only spoilers and flaps now.

Hi Bjoern,

 

I am very much hoping all your modification work will be made available soon to us for this model - I might take to flying it again by the sounds of things

 

Cheers

I actually wanted to publish everything last weekend, but the PID controller for the speed hold modes held me up. Like a controller for inductrial applications, it's a PITA to set up especially since it's running in an environment that is running nowhere near real time. That I can only use incremental outputs doesn't make things any better.

 

Major drawbacks are (re)loading the aircraft in-flight since the engines will be spooled down initially, this makes the plane decelerate rather rapidly and will prompt the controller to compensate with a rather large variation in vertical speed and producing oscillations in order to stabilize the aircraft.

Granted, the default autopilot system doesn't work any differently but attains better results since it has direct access to the control surfaces and manipulates them at frame rate.

After stabilization, you will end up a few knots short of your target speed at very low acceleration values. You will end up at your target speed eventually, but it will take a few minutes.

And for whatever reason, the controller is rather inept at holding target speed in a descent.

 

If you guys can live with these quirks, you can have the mods. If not, I'll need a few more weekends.

I would love to try out your mods for the DC-9

 

Jeffg

[email protected]

I actually wanted to publish everything last weekend, but the PID controller for the speed hold modes held me up. Like a controller for inductrial applications, it's a PITA to set up especially since it's running in an environment that is running nowhere near real time. That I can only use incremental outputs doesn't make things any better.

 

Major drawbacks are (re)loading the aircraft in-flight since the engines will be spooled down initially, this makes the plane decelerate rather rapidly and will prompt the controller to compensate with a rather large variation in vertical speed and producing oscillations in order to stabilize the aircraft.

Granted, the default autopilot system doesn't work any differently but attains better results since it has direct access to the control surfaces and manipulates them at frame rate.

After stabilization, you will end up a few knots short of your target speed at very low acceleration values. You will end up at your target speed eventually, but it will take a few minutes.

And for whatever reason, the controller is rather inept at holding target speed in a descent.

 

If you guys can live with these quirks, you can have the mods. If not, I'll need a few more weekends.

 

I would say you take your time to do the best you can, and thanks for sharing when you think it's up to.

Thanks, Cheers,

Ed

I would say you take your time to do the best you can, and thanks for sharing when you think it's up to.

Thanks, Cheers,

Ed

I too echo that. Take your time, Bjoern. I'd sooner have something that was thoroughly tested rather than rushed.

+1. It´s ready when it´s ready :wink:

There's another approach at handling "speed by pitch" functions, but implementing and testing it requires time that I won't have for a while.

 

At present, you are able to fly with IAS and Mach Hold if you don't mind the plane starting to deviate during long climb or descent segments and the odd oscillation to stabilize. In stable sitautions, i.e. at cruise, the speed will be held just fine and all you need to do is to adjust your throttles to hold your altitude.

Maybe this is even realistic since we're talking 1960s technology here. Would love to hear a DC-9 driver's commentary on the autopilot some time.

Hey I can certainly wait, many thanks for all  your work on this Bjoern

In case you haven't noticed, there's a new service pack (SP2) out for the FSX release.

 

And after digging through the new models and gauges to adapt my mod package, I'm both humbled and disappointed. Humbled, because some elements of my modifications, such as the extended hydraulics failures, fixes to performance decreasing K: var spam, the extended first officer sound samples (Sky Simulations uses a different voice though) and the speed hold PID controller found their way into the main package and disappointed because the "known bugs" section in my readme didn't receive much attention. Therefor, the bugs with the inoperable fuel heat switches in the VC, the mismapped auxiliary tank fuel gauge and the barely working temperature selector switches are still present.

One major change on the exterior models is the replacement of .fx based effects for the nav, strobe and beacon lights with 3D modeled ones. This means that you won't get any floating lights (FSX bug) and that the beacon will now rotate. Landing light splashes are still default though. The FSX-internal variables for the lights are also toggled regardless to provide compatibility with some add-ons.

I'd like to hear from people running the unmodified aircraft whether things have improved witth the service pack.

 

Op-ed:

The aforementioned items from the mod package aren't the only familiar things about the models. 3D lights were something I've developed for my old Do-328 model and the wiper code is almost one by one the one from my Cv-580. Looks like the dev team kept a close eye on my posts at FSDeveloper. :)
Besides that, the model's design philosophy pretty much reflects how I'd tackle things, with pretty efficient texturing, 2D gauges where applicable and consequent use of custom variables for switches for further processing by systems gauges. Even the amount of stuff to do in the cockpit is just about right for normal operation. Now if only the coding and bug hunting was a bit more consequent, so that I wouldn't have to sink so much time into postprocessing...

 

In other news:

The new mod release will be trimmed down a bit in terms of files. I've reorganized most modified gauges, so that their bitmaps will be read directly from Sky Simulation's gauge archives instead of the mod folder. I therefor won't have to include them in the download, decreasing archive size. More space saving is attained by using some cockpit sound samples from the original package instead of my third party ones. Speaking of sounds, I've also added or changed a few cockpit sound assignments to make things more varied.

The APU and GPU also got a bit of attention. Both will now supply actual, FSX-internal electricity to the systems. Next to a mild overhaul to the electrical system, I'm considering a extended battery simulation, providing realistic use time.

Another thing I've been slightly improving is the fuel system. Thanks to XMLTools magic, the auxiliary tank pump now actually pumps fuel to the center tank and I'm considering applying the same principle to the center tank pump. Oh, and the APU now uses actual fuel.

Can't give an ETA for the updated mods though. Just remain calm and patient and wait.

 

 

Still working on this. Overhauled the fuel system and it now pretty much reflects the real one from an operational standpoint. You pick your fuel tanks with the amount of pumps running in a given tank and the cross feed valve. This also affects the APU.

 

On a more exciting note for some, I'm rebuilding the remaining C++ gauges in XML at the moment (restoring things like night lighting capabilities for the 2D panels in the process and, as usual, adding minor improvements), which theoretically means that the DC-9 will be usable in P3Dv4 as long as the 64 bit versions of XMLTools and the sound gauge are used. I, of course, won't be able to test this as I don't have P3Dv4.

thats great info guys!  I am for sure in the marker for a dc9 and this helps a lot.  I am going with the coolsky d9-30. 

I have a problem with this plane..all works flawlessly (SP1 in P3D V.3.4) but the liveries installers doesn't works -.-

I've also installed the pre livery tool but nothing...the installers keep on "abort" because they can't find the DC-9 in my system

Did you guys have any solution? :(

Liveries, for whatever reason, install to "C:\Sims\FSX...".

11 hours ago, Bjoern said:

Liveries, for whatever reason, install to "C:\Sims\FSX...".

The installers locks just prior to install ("installation aborted because Sky Sim DC9 is not installed" is the message -.-)