Excellent GA Light Twin Aircraft

[beechcaptain 105]

I really like the following aircraft which are now freeware from MilViz/Blackbird Sims:

Beechcraft B55 / E55

Cessna 310R Redux

Piper PA30 Twin Comanche

To me, these are excellent versions that work well in P3Dv5.3, albeit with a bit of tweaking here or there.  They are a joy to fly with default GNS, RXP GNS & GTN panels.

I must admit, I had a few head scratchers with the Twin Comanche and after much inquiring, digging through forum archives and some common deduction, I am now quite satisfied.

I thought I would make these findings known herein so that any potential Twin Comanche pilots can also experience fun flying with minimal, if any, glitches.

1. The most difficult issue I encountered was not being able to start one or both engines, no matter how many times I tried, following the correct start procedures and even using Ctrl+E autostart function. I must note, I prefer to start from a cold & dark cockpit, so this was almost a dealbuster.

After much digging, I found this solution:

Quote

In the Aircraft CFG:

[piston_engine] // Lycoming IO-320-B
-
-
normalized_starter_torque= 5  //Starter torque factor

Changed the starter torque to 6 as follows:

normalized_starter_torque= 6  // 5 Starter torque factor

Mine already had 6 as the entry, which apparently in my sim setup didn't work, so I changed the value to 7 like this:  

normalized_starter_torque= 7  // Starter torque factor

And now my Twin Comanche starts up from a cold & dark status, every time, as it should.

So, if you are struggling to start your Twin Comanche from a Cold & Dark state, give this a try, but be sure to make a backup copy of the aircraft.cfg before you do. It should work and get you flying in no time.

2. It is unfortunate that the Twin Comanche's KAP140 autopilot is useless, with a bug that has never been corrected.  There has been a fix provided, unfortunately it has bugs of its own as it was developed for an older release prior to P3Dv5. I tried the KAP140 fix, but after several flights, removed it.  It allowed the KAP140 to function properly, but because it is based on an older version of the mdl files, caused other issues to appear, such as left landing light being misplaced about a scale foot ahead of the left wing.  Also, the updated Attitude Indicator/Artificial Horizon failed to work.  This required some tweaking to get the original panel cluster restored so it was airworthy.  Then along came another issue, although merely cosmetic, bugged the dickens out of me - diagonal semi transparent line running across the left side of the instrument panel that seemed to render part of the terrain moving past beneath the aircraft.  After weighing the options, I decided to remove the KAP140 fix and uncheck the "KAP140 Autopilot" option from the MilViz MVAMS app, removing the KAP140 from the panel.  Now, I enjoy flying the Twin Comanche with the original panel and rxp GTN 650/750 installed and use a Bendix King autopilot I manually added to the panel.cfg as a popup (I could not find a way to add it to the vc as MilViz tends to hard code them into the model file).  It is a tradeoff that is workable, but most of all, allows me to enjoy flying the Twin Comanche on 1-2 hour vfr & ifr flights. 

I highly recommend these aircraft, especially now that they are free.  They are great quality ga aircraft, imho.  

Just my $0.02, of course, but if it helps at least one person come to enjoy the Twin Comanche as much as I have, then mission accomplished!

Kindest regards & clear skies,

Glenn

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by beechcaptain
Grammar

[DrumsArt 270]

2 hours ago, beechcaptain said:

I really like the following aircraft which are now freeware from MilViz/Blackbird Sims:

Beechcraft B55 / E55

Cessna 310R Redux

Piper PA30 Twin Comanche

To me, these are excellent versions that work well in P3Dv5.3, albeit with a bit of tweaking here or there.  They are a joy to fly with default GNS, RXP GNS & GTN panels.

I must admit, I had a few head scratchers with the Twin Comanche and after much inquiring, digging through forum archives and some common deduction, I am now quite satisfied.

I thought I would make these findings known herein so that any potential Twin Comanche pilots can also experience fun flying with minimal, if any, glitches.

1. The most difficult issue I encountered was not being able to start one or both engines, no matter how many times I tried, following the correct start procedures and even using Ctrl+E autostart function. I must note, I prefer to start from a cold & dark cockpit, so this was almost a dealbuster.

After much digging, I found this solution:

Mine already had 6 as the entry, which apparently in my sim setup didn't work, so I changed the value to 7 like this:  

normalized_starter_torque= 7  // Starter torque factor

And now my Twin Comanche starts up from a cold & dark status, every time, as it should.

So, if you are struggling to start your Twin Comanche from a Cold & Dark state, give this a try, but be sure to make a backup copy of the aircraft.cfg before you do. It should work and get you flying in no time.

2. It is unfortunate that the Twin Comanche's KAP140 autopilot is useless, with a bug that has never been corrected.  There has been a fix provided, unfortunately it has bugs of its own as it was developed for an older release prior to P3Dv5. I tried the KAP140 fix, but after several flights, removed it.  It allowed the KAP140 to function properly, but because it is based on an older version of the mdl files, caused other issues to appear, such as left landing light being misplaced about a scale foot ahead of the left wing.  Also, the updated Attitude Indicator/Artificial Horizon failed to work.  This required some tweaking to get the original panel cluster restored so it was airworthy.  Then along came another issue, although merely cosmetic, bugged the dickens out of me - diagonal semi transparent line running across the left side of the instrument panel that seemed to render part of the terrain moving past beneath the aircraft.  After weighing the options, I decided to remove the KAP140 fix and uncheck the "KAP140 Autopilot" option from the MilViz MVAMS app, removing the KAP140 from the panel.  Now, I enjoy flying the Twin Comanche with the original panel and rxp GTN 650/750 installed and use a Bendix King autopilot I manually added to the panel.cfg as a popup (I could not find a way to add it to the vc as MilViz tends to hard code them into the model file).  It is a tradeoff that is workable, but most of all, allows me to enjoy flying the Twin Comanche on 1-2 hour vfr & ifr flights. 

I highly recommend these aircraft, especially now that they are free.  They are great quality ga aircraft, imho.  

Just my $0.02, of course, but if it helps at least one person come to enjoy the Twin Comanche as much as I have, then mission accomplished!

Kindest regards & clear skies,

Glenn

 

Hi Glenn,

I also managed to get the Comanche to work in P3D5.3. I kept the KA40 patch. Of course there is a couple of glitches on the left landing light and also on the cockpit light (no more). For the latter I fixed it with FSLSpotlights.

For the Cessna I am quite happy, there is one thing I would like to improve is the size of the RXP Gtn750 in height and width. I don't know how to do it. Also the RXP650 does not appear on the dashboard but if I click where it should be I get the popup.

I just did a flight and everything works.

Important I used the F1_GTN750_650_Panel to make it compatible with the RXP. It is this panel that I advise to take. Do not take the F1_GTN750_650_WX_Panel. I had used it without paying attention, systematically the plane after a few minutes of flight freeze and crash P3D.
If someone has the solution to change the size of the GTN750 I'm interested!

Richard.

EDIT: Got it! I had not reported the correct numbers in the gauge00=rxpGTN!GTN_750 or 650_1, 0, 0, 677, 794 lines.
So I deduce that the last 2 numbers correspond to the size of the GTN in the dashboard. Works like a charm. I love this plane!

Edited March 10, 2023 by DrumsArt

[beechcaptain 105]

Glad you got it working in the Cessna, Richard!

Yes, it is good to forewarn users not to select the panels which include the wx radar, such as F1_GTN750_650_WX as you mentioned.  I also had ctd when trying to load the Cessna Redux with that panel selected.  I hope other viewers take note and avoid this problem. I even made sure I installed the WX radar version for P3Dv5 that is available on the Blackbird Sims MilViz support forum archives, but still had the ctd.

 

 

[ggerolamo 108]

On 3/10/2023 at 10:22 PM, beechcaptain said:

I even made sure I installed the WX radar version for P3Dv5 that is available on the Blackbird Sims MilViz support forum archives, but still had the ctd.

The milviz WX radar unfortunately does not work in p3d5.3 !
I always (in all planes) use the excellent 'Weather Radar VC & pop-up Gauge V 2.0 - x64 build' from Roland Herblot for this purpose in VC !
https://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=200102
 

Helpful link:
https://forums.hifisimtech.com/threads/free-wx-radar-gauge-for-popup-or-vc-integration-x64-p3dv4-v5-build.8594/

regards

ggerolamo

Edited March 13, 2023 by ggerolamo

[Slayer68 63]

The WXR .dll only worked on V5 and 5.1 i believe. After that some major changes were done in P3D that would have required a total rewrite of the WXR code.

Avoid any panel selection with the WXR as posted to keep from CTD.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Slayer68