Report Cessna 414AW Chancellor issues

[Sender46 21]

Oops, double post.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Sender46

[Sender46 21]

3 hours ago, jfwharton said:

I tried checking this out again this morning.  Started a flight KBIL to KBZM with the simulator placing the aircraft on the runway at KBIL with engines running.  The fuel computer shows 00.0.  Pressing the lower left button changes the display to what was stated above 0-.0.  I then reset the flight.  This time with the fuel computer showing 00.0 I pressed the function button.  The display changed to 206 gal rem.  But I had set the fuel at 80 percent when I was selecting the aircraft, livery and fuel for the flight.  Checking the fuel pulldown menu it shows 80.1 gal per side or 160.2 gal total, yet the fuel computer shows 206 gal rem.

I started a new flight with the same model aircraft (GNS 530), set fuel again to 80% or 160.2 gallons.  This time after loading the flight plan using the simulator I selected a parking spot and selected fly.  I turned the fuel tanks to left and right main and turned on the battery and alternators.  I pressed the function button on the fuel computer and it showed 206 gal rem.  Am I doing something wrong?  Why is it showing about 45-46 gallons more than I have loaded?

I don't think you're doing anything wrong when you are seeing 206 GAL REM when you press the FUNCTION button.

When you switch on the battery, the computer should show the fuel remaining from the last flight without touching the computer, i.e. your 160.2 gallons. If that's what you want to fly with, you should then press ENTER.  This is Situation #2 in the fuel computer section of the FSW manual.

BUT if you want to fly with full tanks, pressing FUNCTION once will show the full capacity (i.e. 206 gallons) and FILLUP, then you verify the tanks are topped up and press ENTER.  This is Situation #1 as described in the fuel computer section of the FSW manual.

BUT again, if you want to add some fuel but not fill up, instead of pressing FUNCTION once as in Situation #1 above, press FUNCTION twice to get into ADD GAL mode and then set numbers in the top section to add the amount of fuel you want to add (the manual describes further how to do this) and actually add that amount into the tanks in the fuel menu.  This is Situation #3 in the fuel computer section of the FSW manual.

I hope that makes sense and helps.  It took me a while to figure that out from the manual.

I'm getting mixed results with the fuel computer.  Sometimes it does what it should and other times it doesn't.  I'm still experimenting and trying to understand what different circumstances make it go wrong.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Sender46
Spelling

[jfwharton 50]

2 hours ago, Sender46 said:

I don't think you're doing anything wrong when you are seeing 206 GAL REM when you press the FUNCTION button.

When you switch on the battery, the computer should show the fuel remaining from the last flight without touching the computer, i.e. your 160.2 gallons. If that's what you want to fly with, you should then press ENTER.  This is Situation #2 in the fuel computer section of the FSW manual.

BUT if you want to fly with full tanks, pressing FUNCTION once will show the full capacity (i.e. 206 gallons) and FILLUP, then you verify the tanks are topped up and press ENTER.  This is Situation #1 as described in the fuel computer section of the FSW manual.

BUT again, if you want to add some fuel but not fill up, instead of pressing FUNCTION once as in Situation #1 above, press FUNCTION twice to get into ADD GAL mode and then set numbers in the top section to add the amount of fuel you want to add (the manual describes further how to do this) and actually add that amount into the tanks in the fuel menu.  This is Situation #3 in the fuel computer section of the FSW manual.

I hope that makes sense and helps.  It took me a while to figure that out from the manual.

I'm getting mixed results with the fuel computer.  Sometimes it does what it should and other times it doesn't.  I'm still experimenting and trying to understand what different circumstances make it go wrong.

Thank you for the explanation but what you wrote doesn't work.  If I set up a flight with 80% fuel load that is according to the simulator about 160 gallons of fuel.  Yet when I start the flight the flight computer shows, after pressing the funct button once, 206 gal rem.  I want to set 160 gallons.  But there is no way to zero out the 206 gal rem.  So when I press the button to add gal, and the tank is already full, I get more than a full load of fuel.  I want to be able to reset the fuel computer and then add the fuel that I have loaded either through the simulator fuel interface, or manually using the fuel computer.  

I tried starting a new flight and set the fuel to 0 before selecting fly.  Once in my parking space, turning on the battery and pressing the fuel computer FUNC button once it shows 206 gal rem.  So I believe I have verified there is no way to set fuel less than the maximum amount.

Update.  After starting a flight and setting zero fuel as the fuel on board I started the flight in parking.  Turned on the battery and pressed the FUNC button on the fuel computer.  It showed 206.  I pressed the FUNC button again and kept pressing the FUNC button to add zero fuel and pressed enter.  Now the fuel remaining shows 150 gal.  So I'm really confused as to how this  fuel computer operates.  

I also tried the correction process.  The fuel computer was showing 206 gal/rem.  I subtracted 206 from 1001 and got 795.  Turned the battery off, waited and then back on.  Pressed the Function button which showed 206.  Pressed it again and entered 795.  Turned the battery off and then back on and checked the fuel computer does not show zero gal remaining.

Edited April 23, 2022 by jfwharton

[Sender46 21]

3 hours ago, jfwharton said:

Thank you for the explanation but what you wrote doesn't work.

I agree, what I wrote doesn't work most times.  But I have seen it work correctly twice (with Beta 1.6.2_Hotfix) and I don't understand why it doesn't most of the time.

I've just tried again.  Started MSFS, loaded a flight, set 80% fuel, press FLY, enter flight (in a parking spot) and press READY TO FLY.

Switched on the battery and that's where it goes wrong.  At that point the top section should show the amount of fuel that is in the tanks but it is blank (no numbers).  BUT, as I say, on two occasions that has worked and the numbers have been there showing correctly what is in the tanks, then pressing ENTER to accept that did set the computer for the flight, correctly showing the amount of fuel I had in the tanks.

With the top section blank (which is incorrect) the first press of the FUNCTION button does do what it should do, in that it shows 206 GAL REM and is what you would set for full tanks.  BUT if I then press ENTER to accept that to set 206 gallons for the flight, I get LOW FUEL flashing in a red box, even though I have 80% in the tanks.  Interestingly, at that stage, if I then go into the fuel drop down menu and adjust what's in the tanks, it then shows the correct fuel remaining on the computer (I can see the computer changing and showing the correct amount as I adjust in the fuel drop down menu) but the LOW FUEL warning still keeps flashing.

The second press of the FUNCTION button also works to put you in the mode to set how much fuel I want to add.  But I can only add to the 206 gallons, which is obviously wrong.

I think I know how it should work (I stand to be corrected if I have misunderstood the manual) but most of the time it's not doing what I think it should.

EDIT:  I've just tried the systems.cfg file that's on Discord for this but it doesn't fix it for me.

Edited April 24, 2022 by Sender46

[jfwharton 50]

45 minutes ago, Sender46 said:

I agree, what I wrote doesn't work most times.  But I have seen it work correctly twice (with Beta 1.6.2_Hotfix) and I don't understand why it doesn't most of the time.

I've just tried again.  Started MSFS, loaded a flight, set 80% fuel, press FLY, enter flight (in a parking spot) and press READY TO FLY.

Switched on the battery and that's where it goes wrong.  At that point the top section should show the amount of fuel that is in the tanks but it is blank (no numbers).  BUT, as I say, on two occasions that has worked and the numbers have been there showing correctly what is in the tanks, then pressing ENTER to accept that did set the computer for the flight, correctly showing the amount of fuel I had in the tanks.

With the top section blank (which is incorrect) the first press of the FUNCTION button does do what it should do, in that it shows 206 GAL REM and is what you would set for full tanks.  BUT if I then press ENTER to accept that to set 206 gallons for the flight, I get LOW FUEL flashing in a red box, even though I have 80% in the tanks.  Interestingly, at that stage, if I then go into the fuel drop down menu and adjust what's in the tanks, it then shows the correct fuel remaining on the computer (I can see the computer changing and showing the correct amount as I adjust in the fuel drop down menu) but the LOW FUEL warning still keeps flashing.

The second press of the FUNCTION button also works to put you in the mode to set how much fuel I want to add.  But I can only add to the 206 gallons, which is obviously wrong.

I think I know how it should work (I stand to be corrected if I have misunderstood the manual) but most of the time it's not doing what I think it should.

EDIT:  I've just tried the systems.cfg file that's on Discord for this but it doesn't fix it for me.

Thank you very much for your response.  At least I know I'm not the only one and that it's definitely not working as advertised.

[ark 1,291]

4 hours ago, jfwharton said:

But there is no way to zero out the 206 gal rem.

I'm told that to zero out the fuel quantity you have to turn off the C414 battery, click the fuel computer test button, and then turn the battery back on. For this to work you need the the updated systems.cfg file from the FSW Discord test-patch-file channel, or wait until the next general C414 update scheduled for this coming Monday.

Al

Edited April 24, 2022 by ark

[ark 1,291]

Flysimware has completed the transition to a new dedicated high speed server, so while a few new server start-up bugs may crop up, in general you should not have a problem downloading from the Flysimware store or website. As a test I tried downloading the C414 installer from the FSW store and it took less than one minute. Of course this also depends on your local internet service speeds.

Al

Edited April 24, 2022 by ark

[jfwharton 50]

11 hours ago, ark said:

I'm told that to zero out the fuel quantity you have to turn off the C414 battery, click the fuel computer test button, and then turn the battery back on. For this to work you need the the updated systems.cfg file from the FSW Discord test-patch-file channel, or wait until the next general C414 update scheduled for this coming Monday.

Al

I downloaded the updated systems.cfg file and tried zeroing out the fuel remaining and that worked.  Thank you for that information.

[ark 1,291]

For those who don't want to wait until the C414 update tomorrow, I see there are two recent patch files ( systems.cfg and CFS1000A.js ) for the fuel computer on the Flysimware Discord site in the test-patch-files channel. These files fix a "GAL REM" bug when you load the C414 directly onto a runway.

Al

Edited April 24, 2022 by ark

[Zengo23 0]

Cessna 414 Chancellor:

 

Don't know if this has been reported( I looked thru the forum topics and didn't see it). While coming in for a landing I have noticed that after I place the throttles to idle, the engines stay at a rather high RPM setting(@1,200-1,500RPM's) all the way thru the rollout-and you can also hear it. It is only after slowing down below 50kts or so that the RPM's start to come down. I'm running the sim on a laptop and I'm using the keyboard to "fly it"; don't know if this has anything to do with it. I check to see what position the throttles are in once I press F1, which is the "Throttle to Idle" key, and the throttles do go to idle. In any case, I think that IRL once you have set the props to high RPM for landing and then you go to idle on the throttles the engines should "spool" down to @1K RPM's or less-although I could be wrong.

Also, if I remember correctly, the cowl flaps should have 3 positions: Open(all the way forward), Trail(kind of in the middle and it's currently not siimulated) and Closed(all the way aft). Its something that would add some realism in my opinion.

In any case, I'm really impressed by the simulation of this aircraft so far.

 

Frank

[C525B 86]

5 hours ago, Zengo23 said:

Cessna 414 Chancellor:

 

Don't know if this has been reported( I looked thru the forum topics and didn't see it). While coming in for a landing I have noticed that after I place the throttles to idle, the engines stay at a rather high RPM setting(@1,200-1,500RPM's) all the way thru the rollout-and you can also hear it. It is only after slowing down below 50kts or so that the RPM's start to come down. I'm running the sim on a laptop and I'm using the keyboard to "fly it"; don't know if this has anything to do with it. I check to see what position the throttles are in once I press F1, which is the "Throttle to Idle" key, and the throttles do go to idle. In any case, I think that IRL once you have set the props to high RPM for landing and then you go to idle on the throttles the engines should "spool" down to @1K RPM's or less-although I could be wrong.

You said "IRL", so you few 414s for real?  I mean, I think that the windmill effect would keeps the RPMs up pretty high.  Also a commercial pilot IRL, and I don't think that I would be paying too much attention to the tach. during final and flare.  Not trying to be critical here (never flown a twin Cessna)...just want to make sure we're getting the facts right for the developer.  Also, I'd add: It's flightsim and the transition between speeds at low power settings may not be simulated too well in the core game.

[jzimmermann 238]

Great job on simulating the 414, immensely enjoying the aircraft even in its current Beta state!

I think I might have found a bug, according to the POH:

-----

The retractable landing lights (right light is optional) are located in the lower surface of the wing tips. These lights are extended, retracted and illuminated by the landing light switch breaker on the side console, see Figure 7-19. With the switch positioned to LDG, the landing lights will extend and illuminate. In the OFF (center) position, the lights will remain extended but will not illuminate. In the RETRACT position, the lights will retract flush with the respective wing tip. It is recommended that the landing light extension speed be limited to 180 KIAS to improve the landing light service life. 

-----

I have noticed that when I move the light switch from the RETRACT position to OFF, they do not extend. When I move the light switch from either RETRACT or OFF to LDG, only then do the landing lights actually extend. Conversely, when I move the switch from LDG to OFF, they are turned off, and then also remain extended. I would have thought that the lights should be in an extended position, regardless of the switch moving from the RETRACT position to OFF, or rom LDG to OFF.

Jerome

[Sender46 21]

The way I see it, there is some logic to them working the way you are seeing.  Surely you would only want to extend them if you are also switching them on?

Edited April 25, 2022 by Sender46

[MarkW 1,493]

Sorry for asking a simple question.  When you tune a VOR using the GTN750xi and are in GPS mode, where can you see the distance to the VOR.  Even changing to VOR mode in the GPS I could not figure this out.

[Sender46 21]

43 minutes ago, MarkW said:

Sorry for asking a simple question.  When you tune a VOR using the GTN750xi and are in GPS mode, where can you see the distance to the VOR.  Even changing to VOR mode in the GPS I could not figure this out.

On the DME (which is to the right of the Turn & Slip Indicator).