ATR is out

[Treetops45 1,082]

7 hours ago, TomCYYZ said:

Hey everyone, I am trying to purchase on the Marketplace and when I click on the "Buy" button it shows "purchase in progress" and seems to hang. the same thing happened yesterday. I normally do not use the Marketplace for purchases but this is my only option for the ATR72. Anyone else experience an issues like this? I have been waiting about 15 minutes, still hanging, notification says "Purchase pending".

Log on to MSFS using left mouse button.

Do not log on using right mouse button, [as Administrator]

It's a quirk of the market place.

T45

[Malaromane 421]

For those of you having issues figuring out the throttle calibration, I found this video by Mark over at Sim Hangar very useful:

 

[Malaromane 421]

I agree with those of you who are bemoaning the lack of a manual. While it's not the same as having an actual manual to refer to, Microsoft has published a series of tutorial videos for the ATR hosted by real-world ATR pilot.

I've only watched the first two so far but they seemed pretty good and worth the time to check out.

[ricka47 611]

Has anyone found out how to toggle synthetic vision on or off? In the development videos, it was shown as an feature but not how to make it work.

[dusty_sourdough907 73]

Yes, I got it to work...yesterday.

I really like it. Now...as to the how...I clicked around while in flight and...presto. I don't recall exactly what I did. The most recent developer update, on the MSFS forum, Hans goes through those features. The how is in there.

Not trying to be coy.. I'm at work and I don't remember what I did...👀

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by dusty_sourdough907

[Tuskin38 6,501]

I've done 4 flights now, and I'm really happy with it.

[Krakin 5,764]

I think he hit the nail on the head in his assessment. We as a community had expectations MS never set. The plane is word not allowed good for the price and it is very far from basic. It needs some more work but I am confident that it will get done. MS promised something expert and I think they delivered that because even with an active runway start on my first go at it, I had no idea what I was doing lol. Gonna have to do some "studying" lol.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Krakin

[somiller 694]

2 hours ago, ricka47 said:

Has anyone found out how to toggle synthetic vision on or off? In the development videos, it was shown as an feature but not how to make it work.

Click on the "NAV" button just below the FMS and to the left and look at the ND display - you should see "PFD SVS" in a gray box - left click on PFD SVS" then to the right under "SVS" left click "On"

[GentleGroove 69]

Probably some people are looking at this thread trying to decide whether to get the ATR or not, so here is my experience. Finally completed my first flight after a couple of days remembering the procedures and familiarizing myself with this version. For now, let's just say I'm quite happy, but I'll try to sum it a little better.

PROS
Flight dynamics - Handflying feels quite good, neither overresponsive nor sluggish, good control in all phases of flight and no unpleasant surprises. Landing it is a great experience. The tail clearance on the ATR is quite reduced, but the dynamics give you the right amount of responsiveness and inertia to make take-offs and landings comfortable and enjoyable.
Ground handling - Hands down the best I've experienced in MSFS so far, and by this I mean it is way better than the Fenix or the PMDG, which have not fully overcome a certain "twitchiness" in turns while taxiing. The ATR is a joy to taxi with precise and smooth ground movements. Also, the steering tiller axis works, which is great.
Autopilot & Navigation - LNAV, VNAV and power management are all properly simulated, including VNAV IAS mode and AUTO SPD TGT. You can tell these are custom and not using "default" systems. Again, so far no unpleasant surprises in use, building flight plans, using DIRECT-TO function, SIDs, STARs, etc.
EFB - Besides performance calculation, it allows you to custom calibrate your throttle (important as you will need precise control, especially on approach), as well as controlling ground services.
Performance - Excellent, no stutters at all even on heavier airports.

CONS
Flight plans - No import functionality yet (although it seems this may change). ATR routes tend to be short and the FMS allows you to input airways, so entering a route by hand does not take more than a couple of minutes. Nevertheless, import functionality would be great.
Fuel / payload management - A bit surprisingly, the EFB does not allow you to manage fuel or payload. When you enter the weights on the FMS, they appear on the EFB, when you would expect the opposite. An important notice here - entering the fuel and payload weight in the FMS does not change them in the aircraft. In order to load the correct weights from your flight plan into the model, you must use the in-sim weight and balance menu before loading the aircraft. This is quite easy and quick to do, nevertheless, would be great if it could be done from the EFB like in other addons.
Trim - the CG values shown on the EFB seem to be slightly mismatched from the actual loading. For instance, with the EFB indicating a trim of 1.1, the aircraft tended to rotate on its own at Vr. Reducing this value to 0.5 allowed for a normal take-off.
Documentation - The biggest fault IMO. The ATR is a very particular aircraft, so at the very least a "user guide" or "quick start" manual should have been included, especially considering ATR's involvement.

CONCLUSION
Regardless of the cost, I feel this is a very solid aircraft with lots of potential. Yes, some things can be improved still, but out of the box as it is, it's already a great model with lots of interesting features that show you the little quirks of the ATR. For those coming from Boeing / Airbus, the learning curve may be a bit steep (and I noticed many "bugs" mentioned are really people just not knowing how the ATR systems work), but once you get to grips with it, it's certainly a very rewarding aircraft. It also fills a gap between jets and the smaller turboprops available until now, and for those who like to do commercial flights into smaller airfields, the ATR is the way to go.

[aniiran 431]

I was able to jump into it the very first time and start and fly and use it with no problem.  So It's atleast as realistic as the Flight 1 ATR which I paid 40 dollars for on sale.   This thing is a steal,  Very happy.  Flys well by hand AP does what I expect it to do.  Very happy with the Asobo NTTB and NTTM sceneries as well. Now if only we can get a better NTAA.  The one from FlyMex is better than I thought it would be and will do for now.  

[Fiorentoni 4,225]

So trying my first real IFR flight with all procedures I managed to break the FMCs before start (flightplan was all yellow and no matter what I did it stayed this way), then I reloaded the flightplan and it worked. Only for the right FMC to totally fail (it stays on the route page, no other pages are accessible).
Then starting the engines I accidentally hit the conditions levers off and on again, which broke engine no. 1 (it stayed in "start" mode with 17%, no matter what I did). Had to reload the flight.
As others already noted it misses the target altitude by -300 feet sometimes.

So it seems quite buggy, especially when you (accidentally or on purpose) leave the "script". That's usually a sign of a very premature release before all testing has been completed and/or the found bugs have been corrected.
When I stick to the script it works fine, but I find that a bit immersion-killing having to pay attention to not click too much on the FMC etc. So for me it still needs some real bugfixing before I can enjoy it thoroughly.

[btacon 1,795]

40 minutes ago, GentleGroove said:

ATR routes tend to be short and the FMS allows you to input airways, so entering a route by hand does not take more than a couple of minutes. Nevertheless, import functionality would be great.

So FYI, JB’s video of yesterday and my own tests have confirmed that if you enter an airway into the plane via the FMS it dupes the airway 7-10 times or so in the FP. Tried entering my standard test flght, KMIAKATL, via the FMS twice yesterday and both times FUBAR.  Imported today and no issues. I will test some more and the experience might have been User Error but Beckett found it first!

Be careful out there,

-B

[GentleGroove 69]

47 minutes ago, btacon said:

So FYI, JB’s video of yesterday and my own tests have confirmed that if you enter an airway into the plane via the FMS it dupes the airway 7-10 times or so in the FP. Tried entering my standard test flght, KMIAKATL, via the FMS twice yesterday and both times FUBAR.  Imported today and no issues. I will test some more and the experience might have been User Error but Beckett found it first!

Be careful out there,

-B

Yes, thanks for sharing the import tutorial, I will be using that from now on, since I don't own the CRJ I will configure the downloader for the ATR.

[Matchstick 1,886]

2 hours ago, GentleGroove said:

Yes, thanks for sharing the import tutorial, I will be using that from now on, since I don't own the CRJ I will configure the downloader for the ATR.

Be aware that despite what's being said the ATR and the CRJ FMC data formats are NOT QUITE identical.

I've done a fuller write up here

But the short version is the CRJ had a value specifying the approach in the format

"RwyArrFINAL=I15"

but it seems the ATR is expecting something like

"RwyArrFINAL=ILS15"

This causes the ATR FMC to stop loading the data at that other so the approach and everything after it are missing from the Flight Plan

[regis9 4,014]

16 minutes ago, Matchstick said:

Be aware that despite what's being said the ATR and the CRJ FMC data formats are NOT QUITE identical.

I found when I did this import I had no destination airport.  Not sure if that’s a result of the flightplan or some other error on my part.

 

4 hours ago, GentleGroove said:

Fuel / payload management - A bit surprisingly, the EFB does not allow you to manage fuel or payload. When you enter the weights on the FMS, they appear on the EFB, when you would expect the opposite. An important notice here - entering the fuel and payload weight in the FMS does not change them in the aircraft. In order to load the correct weights from your flight plan into the model, you must use the in-sim weight and balance menu before loading the aircraft. This is quite easy and quick to do, nevertheless, would be great if it could be done from the EFB like in other addons.

This is the piece of functionality I’d most like to see addressed.