Black Square Duke Released!

[Cpt_Piett 4,839]

16 minutes ago, Ron Lefebvre said:

I prefer a single button up or down. Hold it down for major changes and single clicks for finer adjustments.

This has worked well for me. Cant even imagine being able to control it with a hat switch.

Wouldn't the hat switch be similar to a key press though? I try not to be dependent on the keyboard, having too many things in front of my on my desk. Recently I've experimented by setting up a trim axis*. A hardware trim wheel would be awesome I guess, but I just don't have the space for that. 

*I'm using the "throttle slider" on my TCA Airbus sidestick. It works, sort of, with the right sensitivity settings. But it's in a very awkward position, being at the base of the sidestick unit. 

5 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

Hey Cap'n! is that the 'invisible' knob on the forward glareshield area hinted at  in the manual or the pedestal? or the visible rocker on pedestal?

I was thinking about the rocker switch on the pedestal. It's super-awkward to interact with (much like in the King Air) due to it's position. But that's how it is in the real aircraft I guess. Clicking the top or bottom part of the rocker doesn't work well for me. Using the mouse scroll wheel = a tiny bit better. But in a high-workload situation, what usually happens is that I change the view, miss the rocker, then end up either zooming in or out of the cockpit view... 

13 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

If you DO mean what the manual is saying then a small rewrite would help ..

a mouse wheel is typically a FOCUS ZONE not CLICK SPOT. You move over the ZONE and mouse wheel movement is detected and actioned.

"A hidden clickspot on the right of the altitude selector can be used (interacted with by mouse wheel) to adjust the attitude holding pitch in lieu of using the pitch knob on the autopilot control panel."

I didn't even know about the hidden clickspot. It does seem to be here though: 

Currently on the ground, so I'm not able to test it. 

[peregrine 3]

6 hours ago, Gilandred said:

Make sure you are calibrating your airspeed indicator for TAS as those are the speeds referred to in the manual, not IAS.  To calibrate TAS, you can use your pressure altitude which you find displayed on the garmin transponder and then move the airspeed indicator dial to align pressure altitude with OAT.

Thanks - I'll give that a try.

[GACSavannah 231]

20 hours ago, ahsmatt7 said:

Flew the piston variant today for the second flight. I can’t shut down the engines anymore. I cut the fuel with the mixtures levers and the plane shakes, the engines sound like they are trying to shut down but the props keep spinning ... I’ve never seen that before.

Actually that aligns with real world behavior. Slow down enough to allow the prop to stop windmilling, and feather the prop. Once you have allowed the prop to stop you can accelerate back up, if the single engine performance will permit it. Your performance will be better than it was with the windmilling prop on the dead engine. Sometimes, after accelerating the prop will sort of "pop" turn a little and stop...turn a little and stop... turn a little as the engine is forced through the 4 strokes and returns to the compression stroke where it starts over again. The PT-6 version the feathered prop will often slowly rotate.

Edited May 13 by GACSavannah
typo

[Cpt_Piett 4,839]

By the way, just re-watching one of my videos, flying the Grand Duke, at 24,000ft over the Annapurna mountain range, I got 200 KIAS (airspeed indicator) and 256 TAS GS (TDS). 

Another by the way: How does one deal with the red line on the manifold pressure (piston engine). I've been practicing not exceeding it, not even during takeoff. What's the expert opinion on this?

...

3rd by the way: On my first flight, I was trying to figure out how pilots know when the cowl flaps are in the open/closed position during flight. On the ground you can hear the sound when they're moving, but this is not possible in the air. From the manual: 

Quote

This aircraft is equipped with electrically actuated cowl flaps. The cowl flaps are positioned by the three position momentary “COWL FLAP” switches on the pilots lower side panel; however,
there are no cowl flap position indicators. While this may be frustrating, it is accurate to the real aircraft.

Full cowl flap actuation time is approximately fourteen seconds. Similar to setting flaps in older model Cessna aircraft, the switches must be held for the approximate duration required for the desired setting.

Since this is tedious in a flight simulator, an invisible switch is positioned between the two cowl flap switches that will actuate both cowl flaps at the same time.

I might as well add a 4th by the way: Absolutely loving the aircraft! 🤩

Edited May 13 by Cpt_Piett

[Treetops45 1,083]

Would appreciate some guidance on the steps to take to manage an ILS landing in the Turbo Duke.

Using the TDS GPS I have an ILS approach into KBOS Rwy 33L with 110.70 entered in the Nav1 spot. I pull the Rwy ILS frequency. from either fsxmap or LittleNavMap. Now & then there can be a discrepancy between the frequency for a Rwy I am approaching & I think the frequency is given somewhere in MSFS Scenario, but I don't know where. I figure that the MSFS frequency will be the one the sim will be using. How do I find it?

So, I am say 10 miles out at 1,800'. I am a bit confused about the order of what to push when as regards the APPR button & the GS button. Which should I hit first?

T45

 

[sloppysmusic 311]

4 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

was trying to figure out how pilots know when the cowl flaps are in the open/closed position during flight

You turn your head around and take a peek out the window. Did that in the RealAir Dukes for years 👀😉

[sloppysmusic 311]

15 minutes ago, Treetops45 said:

I figure that the MSFS frequency will be the one the sim will be using. How do I find it?

The TDS 750 will pull the ILS frequency from its database and insert in standby NAV 1 slot. You then switch it when ready. You can go to flight plan airport and click for info and lots of useful tabs there on runways/wx/ etc there is a frequency tab listing ALL known figures for that airport. ILS near the end of list. More than one of course for multiple ILS APRs but it should as mentioned be auto assigned when you LOAD the approach as PROCEDURE.

[mmcmah 448]

31 minutes ago, Treetops45 said:

Would appreciate some guidance on the steps to take to manage an ILS landing in the Turbo Duke.

Using the TDS GPS I have an ILS approach into KBOS Rwy 33L with 110.70 entered in the Nav1 spot. I pull the Rwy ILS frequency. from either fsxmap or LittleNavMap. Now & then there can be a discrepancy between the frequency for a Rwy I am approaching & I think the frequency is given somewhere in MSFS Scenario, but I don't know where. I figure that the MSFS frequency will be the one the sim will be using. How do I find it?

So, I am say 10 miles out at 1,800'. I am a bit confused about the order of what to push when as regards the APPR button & the GS button. Which should I hit first?

T45

 

110.70 is correct. 10 miles out you should be fine at 1,800, as the FAF height is 1,500 at 4.5 mi (NIMOY).

Make sure you've activated the Approach and have transferred the active Nav frequency to 110.70. Then select NAV instead of GPS in the cockpit by pressing the button to the left of the AP annunciator panel so that it can capture the localizer. Finally, press the APPR button, either in the cockpit control panel at the base of the seats or on the annunciator panel (it's a QoL feature the developer added). The GS light is just an indicator. You don't need to press it.

[Gilandred 726]

49 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

You turn your head around and take a peek out the window. Did that in the RealAir Dukes for years 👀😉

I thought they are underneath the engine, not visible from the cockpit?

[Cpt_Piett 4,839]

15 minutes ago, Gilandred said:

I thought they are underneath the engine, not visible from the cockpit?

I think he was writing this tongue in cheek 🙂 I've been using external view up until now to check the cowl flaps position. But from now on I might use the hidden clickspot. Or for added realism, count to 14 seconds when operating the switches. 

[Ron Lefebvre 127]

Since someone mentioned flight altitude

From a real Duke pilot. Not sure if he is talking about fuel consumption or engine power.

"The turbocharger at +fl23. it isn't normally aspirated that altitude, normally aspirated would be no turbo or super charger at all, but the turbocharger is holding sea level power up to that point and is making the most available boost"

[sloppysmusic 311]

23 minutes ago, Gilandred said:

I thought they are underneath the engine, not visible from the cockpit?

Front underneath should be so you can see movement? External view to be safe 😄

Duke B60 series maintenance manual

 

Edited May 13 by sloppysmusic
Capn P guessed right :D

[Gilandred 726]

5 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

I think he was writing this tongue in cheek 🙂 I've been using external view up until now to check the cowl flaps position. But from now on I might use the hidden clickspot. Or for added realism, count to 14 seconds when operating the switches. 

You could also look at the engine page on the tablet.  Cowl flaps will show open and closed positions.

[ahsmatt7 1,201]

1 hour ago, GACSavannah said:

Actually that aligns with real world behavior. Slow down enough to allow the prop to stop windmilling, and feather the prop. Once you have allowed the prop to stop you can accelerate back up, if the single engine performance will permit it. Your performance will be better than it was with the windmilling prop on the dead engine. Sometimes, after accelerating the prop will sort of "pop" turn a little and stop...turn a little and stop... turn a little as the engine is forced through the 4 strokes and returns to the compression stroke where it starts over again. The PT-6 version the feathered prop will often slowly rotate.

This was all happening on the ground though. Good explanation of in flight shut downs! Appreciate it!

[Sky_Pilot071 582]

I wan't everyone to luv these Dukes like I did with the RealAir ones but now  I'm off to my HJET.

sp