Carenado Barber Pole error correction (mini-tutorial)

[whamil77 183]

There seems to be some confusion at Carenado about airspeed and Mach limits and the way they should be displayed.  Many times I have gotten the dreaded overspeed siren only to look at the airspeed display and see my airspeed needle nowhere near the "barber pole" limit.  Those limits, for purposes of the FSX/P3D aural warnings and "Overspeed" message, are contained in the aircraft.cfg file in the [Reference Speeds] section.  Sometimes they are accurate and sometimes they are not.  But either way, they are the limits the simulator uses internally.  The problem arises in Carenado's gauge configuration files where those limits are seldom (read never) in agreement with those in the aircraft.cfg file. This is a brief tutorial on how to correct this error and have the airspeed indicator match the actual limits.  I will use the Premier IA as the example.  

Tools required

1. A good Aviation Calculator.  I like this one.....      http://www.hochwarth.com/misc/AviationCalculator.html

2. The actual limits.  For the Premier 1A, Ray has scrounged some good information for us....  

Step 1.  From Ray's data the limits on the Premier are Vmo = 320 and Mmo = 0.80.  Note that these numbers aren't accurately reflected in the aircraft.cfg file.  (max_indicated_speed=335  max_mach=0.82).  Simply open the aircraft.cfg file and change them.  Absent these numbers or if Carenado didn't produce them in their documentation, just use what's in the aircraft.cfg file.  In the next step we will see how to get the proper crossover altitude with only the airspeed and Mach limit numbers.   

Step 2.  Notice that in Ray's table the "crossover altitude" is actually given (in most of their airplanes it is not).   Let's use the calculator to check it (or to find it if we don't have it).   Open the Aviation Calculator from the link in another window.    In the "Crossover Altitude" section enter 320 KCAS and 0.80 Mach.  Press "Compute."  The answer you should get is 27582 feet.  From Ray's data this appears to be accurate (27,600 ft.).  

Step 3.  Next, extract the cab file "CARPROLINE21_390IA.cab" into a new folder of the same name (minus the ".cab") and place it in your panel folder.  Using "spb2xml.exe" make an .xml copy of the file "Proline_Config_390.spb" and put it in the same folder.  (the freeware "spb2xml.exe" can easily be found on the internet).  You should now have a file named "Proline_Config_390.xml" in the CARPROLINE21_390IA" folder.  

Step 4.  Open "Proline_Config_390.xml" with notepad.   Scroll down to the line that says..... 

33730 (>L:Barber_Pole_Altitude) //Limit to use vne or barber pole max speed
337 (>L:Vne, knots)            //Never exceed speed
328 (>L:Vno, knots)            //Maximum structural cruising speed

Change these lines to read...

27582 (>L:Barber_Pole_Altitude) //Limit to use vne or barber pole max speed
320 (>L:Vne, knots)            //Never exceed speed
320 (>L:Vno, knots)            //Maximum structural cruising speed

......and save the file. 

Step 5.  Rename the file "Proline_Config_390_1.xml" and delete all other files in the folder. 

Step 6.  Open the panel.cfg file and everywhere you see "Proline_Config_390" replace it with "Proline_Config_390_1".  Save the panel.cfg file and run the simulator. 

You should find that the PL21 Barber Pole now matches the actual airplane limitations.  Even though the Premier in v4 doesn't seem to have the blaring warning horn, you should see an accurate "Overspeed" warning on your screen should you have that option turned on. 

[RichieFly 728]

Dumb question:

Where is this CAB file of which you speak?

 

[whamil77 183]

26 minutes ago, RichieFly said:

Dumb question:

Where is this CAB file of which you speak?

 

It's in the gauges folder in the main simulator (FSX/P3D) directory. 

[RichieFly 728]

Many thanks...

Ummm, It crashes each time (spb2xml.exe).

Any suggestions? I'm keen to learn about this stuff.

[whamil77 183]

18 hours ago, RichieFly said:

Many thanks...

Ummm, It crashes each time (spb2xml.exe).

Any suggestions? I'm keen to learn about this stuff.

OK.  A little more information on "spb2xml.exe"

1.  Download "spb2xml.exe" from here....   https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxutil&DLID=94549

2.  Place it on your desktop.

3.  It will look for a FSX directory that contains a folder named "propdefs".  If you have FSX installed, it should work.  If you don't have FSX installed....create a folder on your main drive called "FSX".  Copy the "propdefs" folder from your P3D folder into the new FSX folder.

4.  Using spb2xml is easy.  Simply drag the .spb file you want to convert onto the spb3xml icon.  The file will be converted to .xml and placed in the same folder alongside the original .spb file.

That's it. 

[RichieFly 728]

Many thanks, whamil.

I got it working.

I had to include a registry entry for HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

I used the ever handy FSXRegUtility.

[severniae 78]

Hi, I wonder if there is a way to use a similar process above to fix the barber pole in the Phenom 300?

It doesn't appear to act as it should, I'm not seeing it reduce as altitude increases, and also it doesn't show the limits for when flaps/gear are down etc...

Anyone an expert willing to lend a hand? I'm looking at the gauge xml files but getting quite lost.