Version 1.1 released

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

On 2017-04-12 at 7:56 PM, Gregm8907 said:

Is anybody else getting a clicking noise after a conditioner lever is moved all the way forward? Mine did not do that before 1.1 and it is constant, the plane even loads with it clicking. Sounds like an igniter. 

Yes, mine is clicking all the time - have not found a way to turn it off.

Edit: it is the ignition sound.. in FSX\Sounds\Carenado\CarsoundPA31T

Replacing the wav file with a silent one, gets rid of it.

 

[FDEdev 955]

I don't know why you want to get rid of a realistic feature. If you turn the ignition off (or wait until the start cycle is complete when using the 'ready for taxi' option), the ignition and hence the ignition sound stops.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

10 hours ago, J35OE said:

I don't know why you want to get rid of a realistic feature. If you turn the ignition off (or wait until the start cycle is complete when using the 'ready for taxi' option), the ignition and hence the ignition sound stops.

You are correct, turning off the Ignition switches stops the sound.

That is the correct action to take.

The confusing thing is, that when you first load the plane, it has engines running, ignition switches turned to ON, and a clicking sound driving you mad..

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

I have now flown this airplane for a day or two, and must say that the flight model is very good.  It handles well and the low speed behavior with flaps out is quite convincing..

If Carenado would step up and fix the few open problems, this could be a nice, competent addon 

[TallTanBarbie 19]

Hello -- where's the ignition switch?  There's no cockpit diagram.

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Folks,

21 minutes ago, TallTanBarbie said:

Hello -- where's the ignition switch?  There's no cockpit diagram.

Ignitions are on the overhead - one for each engine although they are tied together in the sim... I'm no expert on turboprops - but I think they actually provide the spark to ignite the fuel ?

Concur with Bert - she flies very nice and I believe I even noted some prop-drag which is a nice realistic touch...

Question: I've seen it mentioned a bunch - but is the generic fault with the FSX/P3D turboprop model - just the fact that ITT decreases with altitude or can someone explain the actual issue more clearly... After watching videos of real turboprops - they always seem to be balancing ITT and Torque in the climb... 

Regards,

Scott

Edited May 20, 2017 by scottb613

[TallTanBarbie 19]

Hello -- where's the ignition switch?  There's no cockpit diagram. --- Forgot to look up -- DUH :)

[C525B 86]

 

3 hours ago, scottb613 said:

Question: I've seen it mentioned a bunch - but is the generic fault with the FSX/P3D turboprop model - just the fact that ITT decreases with altitude or can someone explain the actual issue more clearly... After watching videos of real turboprops - they always seem to be balancing ITT and Torque in the climb... 

 

Among other faults, yes...that's one of the big ones. Allow me to quote Ken on this one (from another thread) for the long answer:

 

On 4/3/2017 at 11:49 AM, KenG said:

I have been watching actual ITT indications with stable Torque settings on climb out in the real King Air. This is a complicated subject due to a variety of factors.

The aircraft engine on take-off is going to be limited either by reduction gear box stress (i.e. torque limited) or thermodynamically due to higher density altitude (ITT limited.) Allot of King Air pilots spend most of their time in the first category in that they take-off at mostly sea level airports on relatively cool days and are torque limited. As they climb into less dense air the propeller is encountering less resistance (since torque is a measure of the engine working against the resistance of the propeller) and as torque drops the pilots add power (increase N1.) This has the effect of increasing ITT.

When the aircraft does take-off when the engine is limited by ITT, generally the ITT limit for take-off is less than the typical cruise climb ITT limit. Thus the pilot pulls back on power (decreasing N1) and lowering ITT.

So to truly see what the fuel control unit is doing you have to take the pilot out of the equation. In this regard, you find that the fuel control unit on PT6A engines is a pneumatically controlled and designed to maintain a set N1. So like the propeller as the aircraft climbs the compressor section is encountering cooler and less dense air. One would expect the engine would thus need to work less to spin at the same speed. Indeed you see that in relation to fuel flow.  However, my observations in a -42 engine has shown that while fuel flow is going down as the engine becomes more efficient at higher altitudes the PT6A when left to its own was slowly increasing in ITT while maintaining steady N1. This is a hardly noticeable effect but over the course of about 10,000' ITT increased about 4 degrees. I have observed this on numerous flights. Indeed ITT does slightly increase with altitude. Thus when you are climbing out right against an ITT limit you have to reduce power every so often. 

My understanding with talking to other developers a baseline turboprop behavior is built into FS and is hard coded. There is not an aircraft.cfg variable or .air file table you can modify to change the basic thermodynamic behavior of the engine. To make the gauges behave like the real aircraft takes some behind the scenes work with gauges and this can't be done using just xml. So I doubt you will see this adjustment in Carenado Turboprops and I doubt there will ever be a community fix.

It was a big and silly oversight of the ACES developers because they give you a table in the .air file to specify torque vs. density altitude, but for ITT they only let you set a maximum value and a slope.  They either didn't know about this relationship, or they just figured that people would only care about torque.

A user named Autogyro made the only workaround I know of for a Carenado aircraft...the PC-12.  He plotted ITT against torque and density altitude from the charts and developed a formula that outputs an more accurate ITT figure to display on the indicator.  He was able to do this because the PC-12 has digital engine indications and it was an XML gauge that could be modified.  For all the other Carenado airplanes, except the 350i and C90gtx, this is not possible because they're 3D gauges and therefore you can't implement something like this without the model source files.

 

Edited May 20, 2017 by C525B

[KenG 492]

Thanks for the info.

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for posting the explanation... I was wondering how the PC-12 had a fix and why the others didn't - understand now... At least now I think I have a grasp on the overall issue at play...

Hi Ken,

Thanks for being the source of much of that explanation...

Regards,
Scott

Edited May 22, 2017 by scottb613

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

On 2017-05-20 at 0:52 PM, C525B said:

 

 

A user named Autogyro made the only workaround I know of for a Carenado aircraft...the PC-12.  He plotted ITT against torque and density altitude from the charts and developed a formula that outputs an more accurate ITT figure to display on the indicator.  He was able to do this because the PC-12 has digital engine indications and it was an XML gauge that could be modified.  For all the other Carenado airplanes, except the 350i and C90gtx, this is not possible because they're 3D gauges and therefore you can't implement something like this without the model source files.

 

With a little bit of careful hex editing, you can change the value in the 3d model.

Steps to take:

In the Interior Model.mdl file:

- find the A: or L:variable that is being used to display the value

- change to a new L: variable name and save

I an xml gauge, calculate the value that you want displayed and assign to this new L: variable.

That is it.

 

[C525B 86]

14 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

With a little bit of careful hex editing, you can change the value in the 3d model.

.....

That is it.

I'm not sure if the real revelation is the simplicity of the fix or the triviality with which Bert approaches hex editing!

I'm going to look into that.  I have no idea if this is within my skillset...the last time I did anything in hex was using a Gameshark to cheat at Playstation1 games 20 years ago.

Edited May 23, 2017 by C525B

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Folks,

5 hours ago, C525B said:

I'm not sure if the real revelation is the simplicity of the fix or the triviality with which Bert approaches hex editing!

LOL...

I don't know if this is even applicable anymore - I did some model work in FS9 - we had the ability to convert a model into "ASM" code - make modifications - then recompile the model again... It seemed that "ASM" was far easier to work with and understand than hex - - - would this still have any relevance in FSX/P3D in regards to these mods ???

Regards,
Scott

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

8 hours ago, C525B said:

I'm not sure if the real revelation is the simplicity of the fix or the triviality with which Bert approaches hex editing!

I'm going to look into that.  I have no idea if this is within my skillset...the last time I did anything in hex was using a Gameshark to cheat at Playstation1 games 20 years ago.

Get a freeware copy of HxD.. that is what I use, and only replace one character at a time, never insert or delete 

[Jiao Mingzhang 0]

Hello,

  i have to say PA31 is very similar with the E90 i flew,and it is pretty reallistic.but when i expericened a single engine out during enroute climd, i had a hard time to fearther my left engine.that being siad,i had to landing the a/c with an wind-milling prop on a 3000 foot long runway.(i used to land a original seneca with a fearthered left engine not zero thurst).And i made it, i am very confused by the prop design on carenado a/c. can anybody tell me what is the correct way to excute single engine procedure?

                                                                                                                                                                                               Harris