IRIS Pilatus PC-24 First Impression

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Looks like a pre-release mock-up to me..

[lupedelupe 315]

Also, I saw this preview online... does this thing actually have synthetic vision!?!?  I think that would be a flightsim first!

 

http://flightsimcentral.net/iris-simulation-pilatus-pc-24-preview/

 

 

No synthetic vision (edit: at least not anywhere I have taken it).  

[Lewicide 6]

I have many of the Iris products and am happy with most of them

 

Particularly the trainer series (very happy)

 

However

 

There seems to be a major sale on their products and I cannot avoid thinking that this one may have been released a bit early

 

Iris does have a history of fixing things (unlike many others)

 

So

 

I'm staying tuned

 

And I wish that they would do something about their website full of broken links

we are not all facebook dwellers.

[richie894 45]

Any updated reviews from the early adopters? I don't have a bizjet in my hangar and tempted to get this and the $30 price tag on SimMarket is appealing. 

[vgbaron 3,652]

With the GTN750, I really like it. Without the 750, I'd put it in the hangar. The external model is very good. Personally, I find the VC lacking. I'd like to see more detail shading etc. Looks too flat to me. I can't speak to the accuracy of the performance but it handles very well.

 

Vic

[Twenty6 693]

With the GTN750, I really like it. Without the 750, I'd put it in the hangar. The external model is very good. Personally, I find the VC lacking. I'd like to see more detail shading etc. Looks too flat to me. I can't speak to the accuracy of the performance but it handles very well.

 

Vic

+1

 

I'm currently using V1.0.20160829.2148 from SimMarket in P3D v3.3.5. Most disappointing for me is that I can't find a forum dedicated to IRIS Simulations and therefore support from other users is like going snipe hunting. The IRIS website is lacking. But I'm encouraged by a previous post saying IRIS has a "history of fixing things (unlike many others.)" I opened a support ticket and will see what comes back.

[lupedelupe 315]

I'm warming up to it. It flies well, but the lack of systems simulation is limiting. 

 

Has anyone figured out a way to harness – an some way or the other – the cabin pressure. The always-on CAS warning in descent is driving me nuts. The range of buttons near throttle and spoiler do a grand total of nothing.

 

And a fix for integrating the GTN 750 interface into the otherwise awkward MFD would be a great benefit!  :wink:

[Twenty6 693]

I'm warming up to it. It flies well, but the lack of systems simulation is limiting. 

 

Has anyone figured out a way to harness – an some way or the other – the cabin pressure. The always-on CAS warning in descent is driving me nuts. The range of buttons near throttle and spoiler do a grand total of nothing.

 

And a fix for integrating the GTN 750 interface into the otherwise awkward MFD would be a great benefit!  :wink:

I'm with you. Complain nicely to "support@irissimulations.com.au" with a needs fixin' list .

 

Integrating the GTN750 has already been done in another post in this forum (P3D forum.)

 

How fast are you descending? I've never experienced a cabin pressure warning (yet) but I have experienced the fuel warning at 25%. The blinking yellow light is really obnoxious. I use the GTN750's built in calculator to tell me top of descent.

[lupedelupe 315]

I'm with you. Complain nicely to "support@irissimulations.com.au" with a needs fixin' list .

 

Integrating the GTN750 has already been done in another post in this forum (P3D forum.)

 

How fast are you descending? I've never experienced a cabin pressure warning (yet) but I have experienced the fuel warning at 25%. The blinking yellow light is really obnoxious. I use the GTN750's built in calculator to tell me top of descent.

 

 

Jay, for the most part I descend at 1500 ft/min. Muting the klaxon is one thing, but extinguishing that yellow light would be great (at least I know the fuselage won't explode!). Task of the day: get the GTN into the VC! 

[madViking 1]

Hello!  I'm pretty new to the forums but thought I'd add my comments as a first step.  I purchased this aircraft last Thursday.

 

I use trackIR and EZDok, and completely agree with the comments above that you can't live without the second.  EZDok is awesome, and allows you so much more freedom inside a VC.  TrackIR is also great - never had issues and this has transformed my experience.

 

I run my FSX (don't kill me, I realize this is a p3d area, but want to give the background before going on) on a i7-4771 @ 4GHz with a GTX770 4GB card.  I run 3 monitors each at 1920x1080; one for FSX locked at 35frams/sec, one for maps/charts as I fly on VATSIM almost always, and one for vPilot, ActiveSkyNext, and anything else.  That's where TrackIR is awesome - even with one monitor you can look around to see everything!  Unlike the Carenado Proline simulation, I can sit in this aircraft (with my Ezdok views of course) and see everything and read everything very comfortably.  I have a friend who flies the PC-12NG in the real world with this Honeywell APEX avionics and showed him the difference between what you can read and see with the IRIS APEX simulation, and the Carenado Proline simulation.  What you are left with is having to sit on top of the glare shield to see the numbers on the Carenado proline, whereas with the APEX in the PC-24 I have a 'sat back' view for cruising and a 'forward look' for take-off and landing - either one reads great with the IRIS APEX.  No issues with visibility for me.

 

One thing to note: The aircraft has not been released in the real world yet, so IRIS only has so much to go by.  Whether they have access to data from Pilatus is unclear; maybe not, maybe Pilatus would rather wait until release, or whatever...  but this is an aircraft that has yet to be released in the real world.  That said, the Honeywell APEX avionics in this aircraft are already in use by Pilatus in the PC-12NG, and it is expected to function largely the same for the PC-24 with the obvious differences between a single turbo prop and a twinjet.

 

On to the aircraft:

 

The biggest issue I've noticed is the resource hog-ness of this aircraft.  It doesn't kill my frame rates as much as the Carenado Hawker 850, but if you look at your resources this thing is a hog.  My first fully prepared flight in this aircraft was KBOS to KIAD.  To get to the end of the story quickly, I had my first OOM error ever on 10nm final into IAD.  I've never had one before!  I do have FlightBeam KIAD and mostly use the ORBX recommended settings for FTXGlobal, Vector, and other add-ons.  I do not have OpenLC NA yet.  I realize that this may be more an FSX thing, but I bet it is heavy on the resources with P3D as well.

 

My first flight:

 

KFAR to KMOT - DCT with 444 gallons of fuel (50% both tanks).  Cruise altitude of 8000 ft.  Was really just trying to get a feel for the aircraft.  It is easy to taxi, likes to be a bit fast.  Easy handling on take off and landing.  A very easy aircraft to fly; I'm not a real world pilot so it could be way off, but I like it.  A couple of notes:

 

1) Pitot heat and other heat managed by the 'system'.  There is no pitot or other anti-icing switches to handle - the system does this automatically.  Not sure if this is real or not for this aircraft.  But when pitot heat and other anti ice systems are engaged you will see it in the lower middle of the lower MFD and/or in the CAS system.

 

2) Cabin altitude is **always** 8000 ft.  This is not adjustable, nor is the cabin climb/descend rate.  So at any time at or above 8000ft, you cabin altitude will be 8000ft.  Your climb descend rate will always be 500 ft/min.  This aircraft can climb much faster than this and CAS warnings will be part of life until you cabin altitude catches for differential pressure reasons.  Descent is the same, as noted by another user.  You can mute the CAS, but the yellow light continues to flash, which in real life can be extinguished by pressing the button.  The yellow/red indicators in this aircraft are not buttons.  In the real world cabin altitude, and cabin rate are adjustable.  Even after I landed...  the CAS was upset by the pressure differential...

 

3) I may have flown the flight (~200nm) at 92% to 95% N1 just testing things out and trying to get there quick.  Not sure on the fuel burn side, but note that the 'Low Fuel' indicators come on when each tank has around 750 lbs remaining.  The PC-12NG pilot with this avionics set experience said that the low fuel indicators come on at either 250lbs total, or 250lbs remaining in each tank (I can't remember exactly what he said, but it isn't 1500lbs total).  Either way, a flight hop like this (~200nm), with correct fuel loading for IFR and alternate will likely leave you with yellow warnings for the last 20 to 30 minutes of the flight.  I know I'm being picky, but...

 

The il-fated Boston to Dulles flight:

 

Flight Plan:  KBOS to KIAD: BLZZR3 BLZZR BAF HYPER7 @ FL360

Fuel: 100%

Not going to repeat the above, but note that the pitot heat came on automatically at some point, and so did the boots.  It was cold at FL360, not sure it was the temps or the altitude that triggered the boots, but had the indicator illuminated in the lower MFD.

 

1) Entering a flight plan.  Read the manual!  It can be done, but the cliff's notes are that there are no SIDs, no STARs and not even the default approaches are available for selection with the current implementation of the FMS.  

 

What does this mean?  I had to enter in 6 waypoints including BLZZR for the 22R departure at Boston, and 19 waypoints for the 1R arrival at Dulles.  All manually.  Done by your keyboard, not with the simulated control panel as another user has pointed out.  The letters on the control panel, as far as I have seen, are unused as of right now.  No big deal, but when I realized I made a mistake, I thought I could delete a specific waypoint in the same manner as I had entered one, but it did not.  It deleted my last waypoint on up.  Big pain, since the flight plan menu in the upper MFD only holds a certain number of waypoints until you cannot see any more.  They are all there, but you can't scroll to see them; its only after you've flown past waypoints that they will disappear and more will be visible in the list en route.  A fun side note; I didn't look at the winds when planning the STAR for 1R, and ended up being directed by the controller to descend via the HYPER7 for 19C, and had to change the flight plan waypoints en route to do so; delete 5 and add 3.  Awesome!  The Majestic Dash 8 would have taken a couple clicks of the mouse in the FMC to do this automatically with the latest navigraph data; this?  not so much.

 

2) As stated previously, I had a crash while established on the ILS for 19C.  The last waypoint on the HYPER7 STAR is HOOSR which is the IAF for ILS 19C.  So I hit the handy HDG sync button, HDG hold, and then switched to the NAV1 for the navigation selection.  This was easy, but I too did have some issues with capturing the glide slope.  Not sure if it would have corrected itself, I had the crash shortly thereafter.  It was sad, but that was the end.

 

Conclusion:

 

Sorry for the novel, but I'm an engineer in real life!

 

I have taken two successful flights since the crash; but from/to airports with less detailed scenery.  KBOS -> KBGR and back to KBOS.  Nothing really new to note here, other than still had glide slope issues at KBGR.  It does suck that you can't even load a default approach of any type with the current FMS/Navigation system.  I really hope this changes.

 

I did try the 'Direct To' feature.  It works as intended, but your flight plan goes to the back.  It is still there, and you can return when you select 'Cancel Direct To' on the upper MFD.  But on my return to KBOS, to do the direct to ENE correctly, I used this feature and upon reaching ENE wanted to go back to my flight plan.  When I went back, it was still trying to do the leg to ENE, and I could not get it to advance.  So I had to fly using HDG hold manually to follow the rest of the track.  I may need to play more, but this too seems off.

 

I've had the same issues as others with SPD hold; it should correctly climb by NOT reducing my throttles but by increasing/decreasing pitch to hold the speed.  I also don't like setting in my initial climb altitude only to have the autopilot buttons sometimes override the set altitude when switching between modes.  Would love to see the VNAV capabilities added, but this will require some serious work to the FMS.

 

And yes, it does look like they've mapped the YD (Yaw Damper) switch to the sim's autopilot on/off action.  So when approaching airports, I've ended up switching off the yaw damper, but not the autopilot, only to be confused.  Then had to manually switch it off with the mouse.  Note also that in the real world, you can turn the FD and YD on while on the ground getting setup for a flight, but not in this aircraft sim.

 

All told I'm hopeful.  This is my first IRIS add-on.  But looking forward to seeing what the future brings...  PlaneSense out of NH will be the first commercial customer of the PC-24.  The friend who flies the PC-12 flies for them.  So I have an affinity for this aircraft, as I may get to see and sit in one.  But the sim version won't get used a ton as it stands today...  just wish I had a screenshot of the PC-24 sitting at Signature in KIAD after a successful flight!

[ppo 67]

If you're having VAS issues or low performance use the "Resource Tools" included in the aircraft folder.

Texture Swapper tool and VC Swapper tool. It will allow you to reduce the 32 bit textures to DXT5.

That should fix it. It plays "nice" now on my system.

[ryanbatc 12,862]

Thanks for the review

[Twenty6 693]

FYI.

 

The IRIS website homepage has a Hotfix available for the PC24. 20160921.0522

 

http://www.irissimulations.com.au/news

[Alberto Zanot 53]

Hello everybody!

i have to say i am quite happy with this jet. I got a question for the owners.

First i would like to say that i am an novice/amateur in flight simulation.

I cannot understand what is the procedure to catch the ILS.

If i just push APP button, after setting the correct nav1 ils runway freq., the plane do not follow the localizer and do not align, nor climb down the path.

What i am doing wrong?

Is there someone kindly explain me the procedure? (i fly with the standard ATC).

Thanks a lot!

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Generally speaking, if you want to fly an ILS approach on autopilot, you would be in HDG and ALT mode on the autopilot,  with the ILS frequency dialed into the NAV1 radio.

 

As you intersect the final approach heading, the Localizer and Glideslope should become active on the HSI (and you should be below the glideslope, not above it..). 

At that point, you push the APP button and the autopilot should line up with the localizer and follow the glideslope down, after intercept.