I'm usually a little late to most parties and MSFS addon planes aren't any different. I waited a while to get the ATR, mostly because I like to wait a little while for devs to iron out any kinks there might be. I was interested in the ATR because I could fake a lot of Porter Airlines Dash 8 flights out of Toronto City Centre. After a few days, I'm really glad I picked this one up, especially for 12 bucks. For that price, I really feel like that's a great value. I have a few questions however, that I'm hoping some of you guys can help me out with. 

1) I've watched the official tutorials on startup procedures and I'm not getting the same results every time. For instance, when I'm removing the prop lock and starting Engine number 2, after I do so, my NP% is at zero, although I can still move the condition lever to auto and the prop starts spinning. In the videos I've watched, there's a rise in NP%. 

2) Even though I'm able to get both engines started, I'm still stuck with a bunch of orange warnings on the MFD. Although all the engines are running fine, the overhead panel still shows a bunch of faults as well. The strange part though, is that when I apply a little bit of throttle, all warnings and faults disappear and I've done several flights beginning this way. Parked with warnings/faults, start taxiing and complete and entire flight, totally fine. Once I park at the arrival airport, and the throttle comes back down, the warning come back. 

3) RNAV approaches. I've only tried to shoot them twice. The first time, the V-FP never activated. The second time, I did, but there was no glad path indicator. I watched the altitudes and it guided me down correclty, but I thought I was a little weird there was no indicator to show I was on profile. 

There are other things that I'm curious about, but these three are the most important issues that have me stumped. I'm really enjoying this aircraft and flying in and out of Toronto City Centre airport is tons of fun. I took sailing lessons around that island when I was a teenager and I remember being more interested in the turbo props coming in and out of there than the sailing. 

Thanks in advance!

Have you watched any Magnar yet? If so, sorry and I’ve got nothing more to offer.  If you’ve not watched his excellent series, I suggest that you do.  He’s quite informative and always entertaining.

-B

 

My ATR was behaving perfectly until the last update (SU14). Since then, I've had no end of trouble with the prop brake not disengaging. I've watched all the YT videos (including Jonathan Beckett's "Prop Brake SOLVED" one) and it still won't work consistently. Sometimes it does, sometimes not.

6 hours ago, Bdub22 said:

I'm usually a little late to most parties and MSFS addon planes aren't any different. I waited a while to get the ATR, mostly because I like to wait a little while for devs to iron out any kinks there might be. I was interested in the ATR because I could fake a lot of Porter Airlines Dash 8 flights out of Toronto City Centre. After a few days, I'm really glad I picked this one up, especially for 12 bucks. For that price, I really feel like that's a great value. I have a few questions however, that I'm hoping some of you guys can help me out with. 

1) I've watched the official tutorials on startup procedures and I'm not getting the same results every time. For instance, when I'm removing the prop lock and starting Engine number 2, after I do so, my NP% is at zero, although I can still move the condition lever to auto and the prop starts spinning. In the videos I've watched, there's a rise in NP%. 

2) Even though I'm able to get both engines started, I'm still stuck with a bunch of orange warnings on the MFD. Although all the engines are running fine, the overhead panel still shows a bunch of faults as well. The strange part though, is that when I apply a little bit of throttle, all warnings and faults disappear and I've done several flights beginning this way. Parked with warnings/faults, start taxiing and complete and entire flight, totally fine. Once I park at the arrival airport, and the throttle comes back down, the warning come back. 

3) RNAV approaches. I've only tried to shoot them twice. The first time, the V-FP never activated. The second time, I did, but there was no glad path indicator. I watched the altitudes and it guided me down correclty, but I thought I was a little weird there was no indicator to show I was on profile. 

There are other things that I'm curious about, but these three are the most important issues that have me stumped. I'm really enjoying this aircraft and flying in and out of Toronto City Centre airport is tons of fun. I took sailing lessons around that island when I was a teenager and I remember being more interested in the turbo props coming in and out of there than the sailing. 

Thanks in advance!

1) Just to confirm: When you remove the prop lock, the prop does not move? Did you push the aux hydraulic button prior to removing the prop lock? Otherwise it won't move.

2) Condition lever needs to be moved to auto, then those warnings should disappear. It's basically the hydraulic stuff not getting power unless the props turn the generator sufficiently. No idea if this is realistic, though.

3) The couple of times I did an RNAV, it worked. You might want to double check your procedures and stuff.

After a little more digging around, it appears that (on some systems at least), not using external power fixes things. I've just tried three sessions (all with no external power) and it worked like it used to. And - yes - I've been using the aux hydraulic button all the time - even when it wasn't behaving itself.

Hi,

2) The LO PR (hydraulics) and ACW electric alarms with running engines and thottles at ground idle is a known problem. The problem is based on change in the MSFS engine in one of the later SUs and was not corrected yet in the ATR (update pending early next year is what i read somewhere). Basically, after start-up, the NP is to low for the pumps and generators to be driven. Increase the throttle slightly (with eg. F3) and the alarms will be off. When loading the plane ready for departure on a runway through the MSFS map, the NP is actually correct with >70% - its the C&D start-up that is a problem. In my case, without hydraulic power and the ACW generators, the brakes and taxi/landing lights are not working . Pretty annoying when e.g. putting the throttles to idle when landing or taxiing. 

3) Have you set the altimeters correctly? RNAV is using the altimeter reading for the correct glideslope (I think...).

53 minutes ago, GGLurch said:

The LO PR (hydraulics) and ACW electric alarms with running engines and thottles at ground idle is a known problem.

I’ve found if you leave the throttles at just a hair above idle it works as it should. Just make sure the throttle indication at the upper left of the PFD shows Man-Man rather than Idle-Idle. 

11 hours ago, Bdub22 said:

RNAV approaches. I've only tried to shoot them twice. The first time, the V-FP never activated. The second time, I did, but there was no glad path indicator.

For whatever reason the distances to waypoints beyond the FAF are not correct, and therefore neither is the vertical guidance. I’m not sure why. My first theory was that rather than giving distances to the RW waypoint (if there was one), it gave distance to the ARP. I don’t even find that to be consistent though. Supposedly an update is coming in January. I reached out to the dev team about this but never heard back. Hopefully it gets fixed, as the WT units work just fine. 

Despite its flaws I love the ATR. I fly it in the Caribbean quite a lot, where it’s mainly VFR. 

32 minutes ago, mryan75 said:

Despite its flaws I love the ATR. I fly it in the Caribbean quite a lot, where it’s mainly VFR. 

This!

It is the one I use the most. A lot of real world operators (and real world routes to choose from) with short flights all over the world. The ATR can be a handfull - especially in strong winds... 

10 minutes ago, GGLurch said:

This!

It is the one I use the most. A lot of real world operators (and real world routes to choose from) with short flights all over the world. The ATR can be a handfull - especially in strong winds... 

And this one just flies so well. Hand-flying this airplane is an absolute joy. 

8 hours ago, GGLurch said:

The LO PR (hydraulics) and ACW electric alarms with running engines and thottles at ground idle is a known problem.

Ok, this strangely makes me happy because I thought I was doing everything correctly. Also good to know there'll be an update for this sometime in the future. 

 

8 hours ago, GGLurch said:

3) Have you set the altimeters correctly? RNAV is using the altimeter reading for the correct glideslope (I think...).

If I remember correctly, I did have the alitmeters set. I'm on another flight now and will double check. I just thought it was strange that the plane did start down on the correct glide path with V-FP activated, but there was no deviation indicator. We'll see what happens here in an hour when I start back down. 

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. Even though there are a few bugs, I'm really enjoying this plane. Nice to do quick hops and get more flying in before the toddler wakes up from his nap. 

According to the last Q&A, there are ATR patches coming in 2024

FWIW I just enjoyed a 3+ hour flight in the -72 Highliner which ended with a flawless approach and landing to RWY 31L RNAV (RNP) Y Palm Springs including a big sweeping descending right hand turn to final. Give it a try. Quite satisfying and I’ve got the last 30 min on video for any scoffers or disbelievers! 😁😁😁.

KHIO/31L N0266F230 DCT UBG DCT OYVEY SIZLR3 KPSP/31L

-B

Edited January 1, 20242 yr by btacon

For some reason (unknown to me) I'm suddenly getting frequent autopilot disconnects with the ATR. This is in clear weather (ie. no turbulence), settled in cruise mode at the correct altitude and speed and without touching the controls.

I'm suspecting my X56 may be sending spurious control inputs, but wobbling the stick doesn't do it (unless it's a *drastic* input). I'm guessing it might be something on on X56 *throttle*, but looking at the AAOs window, I'm not seeing anything being activated on that side (buttons, axes or sliders) when it happens.

I've not had this trouble with the ATR before - and all other aircraft work fine. Any ideas?