Hi all.

I started to be a bit weak when I fly in Sparky 747, it is such an amazing feeling to fly it manually, especially in VR. you can really feel the sheer size and weight of this giant.

Since I flew few manual patterns around KSLC, and couple of quick AP tests, just to test the aircraft, how it works in VR, how it behaves, etc, I wonder is this aircraft ready for a full fledged flight? In other words, setup the weight, fuel, FMC, fly manual up to the end of a SID, switch to AP, and then fly manual from 6nm from the runway to the touchdown. All achievable?

I almost pulled a trigger today on SSG 747-8i, but wasn't impressed after watching couple of reviews on YT.

Any help is appreciated!

for XP12

beta 10 got the worst of the issues sorted.

there is an open issue with ils auto tuning "not" that 2 people have now reported but I cant recreate.

There is an open feature request with LR so the VNAV can be perfected, but it generally works to spec.

LR apparently have some CTDs in their part of the FMC, auto bug reports should get them resolved as time goes on.

Generally/XP11, she seems fairly popular in vatsim Cross the Pond events.

9 minutes ago, mSparks said:

for XP12

beta 10 got the worst of the issues sorted.

there is an open issue with ils auto tuning "not" that 2 people have now reported but I cant recreate.

There is an open feature request with LR so the VNAV can be perfected, but it generally works to spec.

LR apparently have some CTDs in their part of the FMC, auto bug reports should get them resolved as time goes on.

Generally/XP11, she seems fairly popular in vatsim Cross the Pond events.

Veliki pozdrav komsija iz Beograda. 🙂

Yes, I will be using it in XP11, and if it works good in all phases of flight, then I'm afraid I have a new winner in my book. I'm also in love with Toliss A319/321, but this beast is just so different, I love it.

Manual flight does really feel good !

My only terms for comparisons were AS2's 744, and Aerowimnx 744.

Both these sims do reproduce some of the 744 flight characteristics beautifully, according to real world pilots (Jan could probably offer his opinion since he was a 744 1st officer, if I'm not wrong?) such as pitching moment due to thrust, particularly in landing configuraton, and among other, one of the main reasons why IRL operations you should turn Autothrotte off when you disengage the AP ( actually before you do so...).

The heavies (non-fbw) have never been able to capture this rw characteristic in X-Plane - they're too laggy... 

There's the Felis 742, which I do not own, but was told has the same problem. 

Since the 742 also uses default turbofans from LR, maybe it's more of a "turbofan thrust availability lag" then an aerodynamics modeling limitation(?)

Edited November 18, 20223 yr by jcomm

Flew it recently. The autopilot's vertical mode PID constants are in dire need of tuning (and do not use the default autopilot system), but other than that, I consider it usable.

The FMC options are pretty nice, but as it uses the default XP FMS logic, it sometimes crashes when trying to delete a route discontinuity (known XP12 bug, I think).

 

On 11/18/2022 at 9:31 AM, jcomm said:

Since the 742 also uses default turbofans from LR, maybe it's more of a "turbofan thrust availability lag" then an aerodynamics modeling limitation(?)

Engine modeling in XP12 has changed a lot for the better, but requires a good, hard look in PlaneMaker when adapting something from XP11. Pitch by thrust is controlled by engine cant (up/down) and spool time by fuel pump flow increase rate (or so) and turbine momentum.

Edited November 20, 20223 yr by Bjoern

 

3 hours ago, Bjoern said:

Flew it recently. The autopilot's vertical mode PID constants are in dire need of tuning (and do not use the default autopilot system), but other than that, I consider it usable.

I'm sorry for not understanding this. What do you mean? You think AP in Sparky is ok, but VNAV or V/S needs tuning? I'm fine with that even if I have to use V/S and constantly monitor the descend, normally if I calculate when to descent and the rate.

19 hours ago, Pe11e said:

 

I'm sorry for not understanding this. What do you mean? You think AP in Sparky is ok, but VNAV or V/S needs tuning? I'm fine with that even if I have to use V/S and constantly monitor the descend, normally if I calculate when to descent and the rate.

During VNAV climbs, the autopilot has diffculties holding the target airspeed by adjusting pitch. Same in the cruise phase, with the autothrottle commanding way too large thrust adjustments to hold speed. This was with the RR engines. I tried to tune it via the default autopilot constants and when that didn't work, posted in the 747's Discord about it. Msparks replied and said that the autopilot and autothrottle constants for the Rolls Royce engines are in need of tuning. The default engines (CF6?) are apparently fine though.

If it's any consolidation to the 747's dev team, I've seen the same airspeed hold issues in an old release of Zibo's 737 that I was trying to get to work in XP12 (due to graphics issues with the flight plan lines in more recent releases). Could be an issue exclusive to imported XP11 aircraft that didn't get a thoroughly converted for XP12 yet.

I think I'm using CF6 engines, so good news. 🙂

On 12/5/2022 at 3:46 PM, mSparks said:

https://github.com/mSparks43/747-400/tree/master/plugins/xtlua/scripts/B747.42.xt.EEC

Specifically it needs the throttle input isolating from the eec throttle output so the throttle handle doesn't animate while the eec is hunting a thrust ref.

Explain?

6 minutes ago, blingthinger said:

Explain?

Right now the thrust code drives the throttle lever which drives the rate of fuel into the engine,

There should be two mechanisms, one setting the lever position, and another controlling the rate of fuel into the engine.

(Think) you can see this manifest as a bug during climb as the EEC code starts cutting fuel to keep it in limits and the thrust lever animates.

Edited December 7, 20223 yr by mSparks

1 minute ago, mSparks said:

There should be two mechanisms, one setting the lever position, and another controlling the rate of fuel into the engine.

Should? This happens IRL when autothrottle is on? Thrust lever position doesn't actually correspond to fuel flow?

Or is this to work around other quirks? What are the symptoms?

19 minutes ago, blingthinger said:

Thrust lever position doesn't actually correspond to fuel flow?

Nope, the EEC does all the actual throttling, the lever just sets the target (which the EEC can chose to ignore, e.g. to prevent overspeed)

reasonably sure the climb/take off derates should not move the throttle as it switches modes as well, which is another place it manifests if so.

Edited December 7, 20223 yr by mSparks

15 minutes ago, mSparks said:

the lever just sets the target

What's the target in this case?

Just now, blingthinger said:

What's the target in this case?

target is the throttle lever position. that gets set by hand, to a max thrust for climb, idle for descent or to maintain an airspeed in speed mode.

EEC then has a load of extra logic that handles derated thrust given it by the FMC (thrust ref page iirc), probably anti flame out/icing, temp handling.

A lot of that logic is in there already - but its moving the thrust levers instead of just doing it - which makes the levers animate stupid.

4 minutes ago, mSparks said:

but its moving the thrust levers instead of just doing it - which makes the levers animate stupid.

What's the difference between:

sim/flightmodel/engine/ENGN_thro

sim/flightmodel/engine/ENGN_thro_use

Also, you've got a (unholy) print statement in there. Is the animation bit just pid being derpy?