And... that didn't work. 

Tried setting ignition and mags on before cranking.  Held down the mesh switch.

Nothing.  It turns over, number two engine makes a firing sound, then fails to catch.  Number one doesn't even give me the firing sound - it just turns without firing.

Will stand by and see what Aeroplane Heaven has to say.

Oh, one more thing - there was a post above about the cowl flap controls having disappeared.  Only the Pratt and Whitney-engined versions have cowl flaps.  The Wright-engined DC-3s (which in this edition include the Capital Airlines and American Airlines liveries) don't.  So you won't find the cowl flap switches in those cockpits.

Would like to get this thing up and running.  Tomorrow is another day.

7 hours ago, Nobody2020 said:

I don't see your point.  DC3 variants in the real world are hardly relevant to these issues - we're dealing only with a one-each simulation.  What's needed is some accurate documentation and procedural information on THIS SIMULATION we can use to get this sim to work, and that's on AH to provide, since obviously, only THEY know what "coding" compromises they wrote into this product. 

The "manual" we have access to now is laughable, and anecdotes about real-world variations are not helpful.

I did not say that the AH DC3 is without bugs. Actually I can´t get it started either.

My comments about that their procedure was almost right (apart from the mixture) is still true. By that I mean the procedure shown in the manual.

As a former FSX/P3D developer, I have looked into the xml code, and found quite a few errors in the coding.

I will try to find out what causes the problem for the startup, by reading some of the sim variables.

All in all both modelling and coding doesn´t live up to price tag in my honest opnion.

Texture load has gone down using the SD textures, but GPU load is at 99%, which probably is due to excessive drawcalls, either due to excessive polygon count or the use of materials.

As I know manual for 1.1 was updated, you can download it from AH website.

Got excited by this then saw from their startup video the engine & startup is just default P3D... not good.

 

If any of you have ever tried to start a large radial engine from cold, you will know that auto rich before startup is never done.

 

 

 

 

8 hours ago, Alan_A said:

Glad I came back to this thread - I've also been struggling to start the DC-3 and in fact just send a support message to Aeroplane Heaven. But the comments here gave me a few things to try.

I'm also wondering if I've wound up with a hybrid of 1.0 and 1.1.  I downloaded and installed 1.1, and I've got the GPU switch on the left eyebrow panel.  But the manual still gives me the original start procedure with mags off until after cranking the engine.

Next chance I get - as soon as my Bombay cat is off the flightsim chair - I'll try the recommended sequence here with mags on before running the starter, and with the mesh switch held down until the engine catches.

I'm no stranger to simulated big radials, thanks to years of A2A, the PMDG DC-6, the Uiver DC-2 and several generations of Manfred's C-47 - but this one has had me stumped.

Other oddities - this whole business of binding the GPU to the crew door.  There's no way you'd ever start an engine on a C-47 or DC-3 with that forward door open and the ladder extended - it's called the "hamburger door" for a reason, and the reason doesn't have to do with people bringing you lunch.  The ladder is about two inches from the propeller arc of the number one engine when it's extended.  So starting engines that way is a bad idea.

On the whole I'm finding it strange and fiddly (all that searching around for clickspots on the cockpit floor, with no way to bind them to your hardware controllers). 

But if I can get it fired up, I might feel better about it.

Will be watching this space.

EDIT: About the manual looking like a comic book - it's actually based on the USAAF manual for the C-47 used during WWII, and uses several full pages from the original.  So it's authentic in that regard (the manual for Manfred's version also draws from the same USAAF manual).  But I agree it's not all that helpful when it comes to understanding the procedures to use in the sim.

I did a hybrid of 1.0 and 1.1 for P3D v5. I installed the 1.0 base package and the 1.1 sd textures so I could stop getting OOM’s. So far it’s worked well and I can get the blasted thing started.

Small update on my testing regarding the starting issue.

The Magnetos do not work right...

With the switch initially at OFF this happens:

Set to OFF:  Left is OFF, Right is OFF --> Correct

Set to LEFT: Left is ON, Right is OFF --> Correct

Set to RIGHT: Left is ON , Right is ON --> Wrong !! Left should be OFF

Set to BOTH: Left is ON , Right is ON --> Correct

Now turning opposite:

Set to BOTH: Left is ON , Right is ON --> Correct

Set to RIGHT: Left is ON , Right is OFF --> Wrong !! Left should be OFF and Right be ON

Set to LEFT: Left is OFF, Right is OFF --> Wrong !! Left should be ON and Right be OFF

Set to OFF: LEFT: Left is OFF, Right is OFF --> Correct

Also the new 2D panel for setting Cold & Dark etc.. has some errors with certain internal P3D switch settings, as well as some missing inorder to sync it to the sim.

At some point I saw both Alternators being OFF, which they never should be

 

 

Edited April 27, 20206 yr by Wothan

1 hour ago, Wothan said:

Small update on my testing regarding the starting issue.

Thanks so much for testing this out.

I thought I was seeing some odd switch behaviors after selecting cold and dark - I'll see if I can track them down, now that you've confirmed there's something to look for.

Question about the mag behavior - if both mags wind up on when set to "both," would that nevertheless interfere with startup?  Maybe because of the way they step through the sequence?

If you haven't already, please consider sending directly to AH or at least posting in the Sim Outhouse thread, which they seem to be paying attention to.

Have to say these aren't really encouraging signs about system performance or quality control.

I gave up and uninstalled it.  I have no time for any reverse engineering of coding. When I lay hard cash on the barrel for a product, I expect the dam ned thing to work, OUT OF THE BOX.

Screw it...life's too short.

"You pays your money, and you takes your chances". 

So be it.  Lesson learned. 

If there's some kind of strange procedure to get this beast running that actually works, that would be fine.  But the authors didn't see fit to bestow us with that mystical procedure, and that's bad on them - simple as that.

Edited April 30, 20206 yr by Nobody2020

15 minutes ago, Nobody2020 said:

I gave up and uninstalled it.  I have no time for any reverse engineering of coding. When I lay hard cash on the barrel for a product, I expect the dam ned thing to work, OUT OF THE BOX.

Seems ta be a lot of that goin's on in these here parts today.....

17 minutes ago, newtie said:

Seems ta be a lot of that goin's on in these here parts today.....

I have to give Captain Sim better props there at least the thing runs.

Well, if Aeroplane Heaven sees Wothan's fix (maybe in the Sim Outhouse thread) and decides to fix the coding and switchology issues (and procedural issues - still can't get my mind about starting up with that crew door open)... then maybe they can give us some kind of patch.

But no, this hasn't been a particularly happy experience so far.

Edited April 30, 20206 yr by Alan_A

Yup, they need to get their finger out sorting this out. This is no twenty quid add-on where people will have a bit of patience and not feel too bothered about things taking a few weeks to get sorted because they didn't pay a lot. If you bought the DC-3 and the C-47 bundle (as I did), you're into about 65 quid. For that kind of money you have a right to expect them to lift their @rses and get it fixed sooner rather than later, especially when there's a competing DC-3 which you can have for free, and a slightly older and a bit less flashy but nevertheless functional payware DC-3 for far less as well.

Edited April 30, 20206 yr by Chock

  

On 4/27/2020 at 11:18 PM, Alan_A said:

If you haven't already, please consider sending directly to AH or at least posting in the Sim Outhouse thread, which they seem to be paying attention to.

Sim Outhouse doesn't let me post for some reason incidentally, otherwise I'd have been joining in on that thread with stuff lol

Hopefully they’ll get these issues ironed out.  I’m quite interested in purchasing the DC-3 variant but not until this stuff gets fixed.

3 minutes ago, regis9 said:

Hopefully they’ll get these issues ironed out.  I’m quite interested in purchasing the DC-3 variant but not until this stuff gets fixed.

You should bear in mind that if you are prepared to use Control+E to start it, at least until they've fixed it, then there is nothing else really show-stoppingly 'wrong' with it. I've been happily using it in Air Hauler 2, and I would never use something which was problematic in that program because, since you have to 'buy' or 'lease' your aircraft in that, you'd be really screwed if you bought something which turned out to be a hangar queen because it wouldn't start up!

It is a bit of a resource hog because of the texturing, so that is something to bear in mind, especially if you are using the TruSky environment stuff in P3D V5, because that is a resource hog too, and in combination they can have your GPU working really hard, but it is undeniably the prettiest and most detailed DC-3/C-47 you can get for your simulator and it does fly well.

What I want to see is a paint kit, so I can make a paint job of the very battered-looking ZS-UAS (S/N 41-38695), as she appeared in the movie The Wild Geese, as it is my favourite appearance of a DC-3 in a movie. Sadly the real aeroplane, which was operated by United Air, was destroyed in a fatal crash near Hennenman S.A. in 1988, following an in-flight fire caused by a leak from the starboard fuel booster pump.