I just did my first semi-long IFR flight in the TBM to test the aircraft functionality and the Live Weather system. The flight was from KELM to KBOS at FL270, flight plan was CFB RKA PONCT.JFUND2 with a transition to the ILS 22R approach.

Since this flight was in US airspace, I did it knowing that there would be no surface or aloft winds provided by Live Weather (and indeed there were not), but I wanted to see how the rest of the Live Weather functions would play out, and especially wanted to check temperatures aloft against the NOAA upper level forecast. 

Though I am almost certain that the Live Weather comes from a forecast model and not real-time observations, on this particular flight, the predictive weather was actually very very close to real time conditions thoughout. On departure from KELM, the METAR was giving a surface temperature of 31C and pressure 29.93 with scattered clouds at 6000 feet. In the sim I had 30C, 29.91 and there were indeed scattered cumulus clouds which proved to be based at 7200 feet on climb out.

I started cold and dark with the default fuel and payload. I did not use the simulated ATC. 

I loaded my flight plan into Foreflight, and tracked the aircraft position enroute using XMapsy to interface between MSFS and Foreflight. I loaded the Boston JFUND2 STAR, ILS22L and KBOS taxi charts in Foreflight. I also enabled the Foreflight real-time NEXRAD radar and enhanced satellite overlays.

Overall the aircraft performed magnificently. I do not have a TBM POH, and do not know (or care) to “obsess“ over what precise torque/rpm combos would be realistic in this model. I just simply... flew it. I used whatever torque was necessary to obtain a reasonable climb rate and speed, cruise speed and descent rate and speed, and everything worked out fine.

In terms of overall aircraft handling and autopilot and systems functionality, I think this is one of the better, if not best, high-performance models in MSFS at this time.

I hand flew the departure, on-course turn and initial climb. Once I was established on the plotted course line to CFB, I turned the autopilot on, and activated FMS NAV tracking with FLC as the vertical mode. I climbed at 150 knots indicated airspeed which of course gave steadily increasing true airspeed as altitude increased. In FLC mode, climb rate was around 2600 FPM right up to top-of-climb.

Once level at FL270, I let the aircraft accelerate to 210 knots IAS, then throttled back to maintain that speed. This gave a true airspeed of 315 knots.

I checked the OAT passing CFB and ALB and compared it to the upper level prediction in Foreflight, and they were within 2 degrees of the NOAA forecast: -13 (MSFS) vs -14 (NOAA) at FL210, and -25 (MSFS) vs -27 (NOAA) at FL270,

It would appear the the MeteoBlue injection of forecasted temperatures aloft is working fine. If they could just get the upper wind component working in the US, this entire Live Weather test would have been close to perfect.

The autopilot tracked the entire enroute segment, STAR, approach transition and ILS perfectly. Since Foreflight has geo-referenced approach charts, I was able to verify the XMapsy-generated aircraft position on the actual chart against the MFD display, and they corresponded perfectly. ILS localizer and GS tracking were also perfect in APP mode.

Since VNAV does not yet work in the TBM, I had to perform the descent on the STAR manually using VS mode, insuring that I met the STAR altitude constraints, and it worked fine.

In terms of clouds, The Foreflight satellite and NEXRAD overlays showed increasing clouds over Massachusetts and a broken line of thunderstorms south of Boston, extending back westward over Rhode Island and Connecticut, and that is exactly what I saw out the window, and on the radar. Approaching Albany the scattered cloud layer gradually changed to broken with areas of overcast. The thunderstorm cells were in almost exactly the same locations as shown on the Foreflight overlay. If this is indeed from a model forecast, in this case, the model’s prediction of where the the clouds and storms would form was right on the money.

Also, credit where credit is due. Though many of the avionics in the default aircraft are somewhat limited in functionality, I have to say that the emulation of NEXRAD radar on the G-3000 MFD in the TBM is astonishingly good - every bit as good as the real G-3000 in this area.

Not every G-3000 feature is working, but I think the TBM at present has the most complete and refined G-xxxx implementation in the default fleet.

Though Boston Logan is not listed as one of the custom handcrafted airports, it obviously received extra human attention during the creation of the MSFS world, because as far as I could could see, all taxiway designators and signs were accurate.

Overall, the entire flight, start-to-finish was very enjoyable. At the moment I think the TBM will be my go-to turboprop for exploring the MSFS world.

And, as far as I’m concerned, any claim that “you can’t do a proper IFR flight in MSFS” is a load of codswallop.

 

Thanks Jim, I`m about to test the King Air out today, Flew the TBM and found it to be a blast. I tried the twin Barron and just cancelled the flight.....🤣😬

Beautiful write up Jim! Nice to hear about the performance of the G-3000 in a default a/c.

What about wind? I have flown all over North America, wind is always 3 knots on Live weather

3 minutes ago, jpe828 said:

What about wind? I have flown all over North America, wind is always 3 knots on Live weather

Interestingly, as of my post at this minute, not many areas of the whole USA have any winds above 5-6 knots?

https://www.windy.com/?37.108,-96.987,5

KBIL has appx 10kt winds, try going there. But I have read that winds aloft in the USA weren't working right... I have not really flown above 3,000 feet yet.

5 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

Overall, the entire flight, start-to-finish was very enjoyable. At the moment I think the TBM will be my go-to turboprop for exploring the MSFS world.

And, as far as I’m concerned, any claim that “you can’t do a proper IFR flight in MSFS” is a load of codswallop.

But what about the blurries? Did you see the blurries????

A question: what are your take-off trim settings and where do you set the take-off trim?

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

But what about the blurries? Did you see the blurries????

It was too cloudy to see much of the terrain for most of the flight.

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

A question: what are your take-off trim settings and where do you set the take-off trim?

I just left the trim where it was set when the aircraft loaded in the cold and dark state. It was close to neutral. I needed a little nose-down trim after takeoff, but not much. The TBM handles very nicely when hand flying. Approach speed with full flaps is only 85 knots - not much faster than a Cessna.

I use the trim switches on my Honeycomb yoke to adjust trim in all aircraft. Not exactly realistic for something like a C152 or Cub, which does not have electric trim, but the switches work for every aircraft in the sim, large and small.

Edited August 23, 20205 yr by JRBarrett

I hope the winds are getting fixed with Live Weather. I've tried in Asia (Vietnam), Europe (various places) and the US, and I've never gotten winds more than 4-5 kts. Even though, the METAR for the airport is considerably higher.

2 hours ago, jpe828 said:

What about wind? I have flown all over North America, wind is always 3 knots on Live weather

Nope, no wind, which is what I expected would happen. Every other aspect of Live Weather was there... except wind.

2 minutes ago, travelabroad said:

I hope the winds are getting fixed with Live Weather. I've tried in Asia (Vietnam), Europe (various places) and the US, and I've never gotten winds more than 4-5 kts. Even though, the METAR for the airport is considerably higher.

That’s strange! Winds absolutely DO work for me in Europe. Or at least they do in the UK. I haven’t tried other parts of Europe.

2 minutes ago, JRBarrett said:

That’s strange! Winds absolutely DO work for me in Europe. Or at least they do in the UK. I haven’t tried other parts of Europe.

Hmm - thanks for that. I'll try it again. It's quite a windy day in Denmark... I'll see what the Copenhagen Airport says for winds... 

EKCH 230620Z AUTO 22013KT 9999 FEW018/// SCT210/// 18/14 Q1008 TEMPO SCT030CB

 

Edited August 23, 20205 yr by travelabroad

Another question: when I start the engines the ITT gauge goes into the red and I get an aural warning. I did follow the checklist. What am I doing wrong?

3 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

That’s strange! Winds absolutely DO work for me in Europe. Or at least they do in the UK. I haven’t tried other parts of Europe.

I just tried sitting at EKCH where the winds should have been 13kts @ 220 ... but I got 4-5 kts from 130. Which doesn't comply 😕

Is this just coincidental or is there some work-around to get this to work, somehow?