Fabs

That’s a great proposal, but sadly in my experience, Carenado are not the best listeners. interestingky, they have no incoming products listed for any platform. Has the well finally run dry?....

I have the latest set of ISG Simvionics installed, and I can confirm they work flawlessly in all aircraft, and as described by the dveloper. Importantly, these gauges are navdata ready. With respect to Carenado aircraft, with one or two caveats depending on model, they are a perfect retrofit. For some aircraft such as the Citation S550, they work seamlessly, as they even populate the default Carenado FMCs and Navigation Displays with route data fed from FPs input into the ISG gauges. For other types, because Carenado saw fit to create a number of iterations of their inadequate UFMC, then whilst the ISG gauges still work and direct the aircraft via heading hold, they sadly cannot populate the UFMC or display a route in the ND. The developer, Ernie Alston (of QW), may work on them to correct this, but he cannot be expected to amend his gauges to fit each and every Carenado or third party aircraft model., especially since he provides navigation displays, EFIS panels, etc, as part of the package. Whilst many of you may prefer to see GTN style nav devices fitted into the VC of aircraft, whilst I don't find their functionality disagreeable (not at all!), I find that for my tastes, GTNs are very modern devices and a step too far from reality. ISG gauges such as the ISG GNS fit better in Carenado aircraft. OK, they are 2D, but when used in conjunction with free panel pop-ups such as SimControl (by Yannis), they are just as accessible, and readily useable,because after all, most of us pop-up FMCs into their respective windows, so what is the difference? In aircarft suich as the Milviz 737 or Virtualcol where VC space has been allocated to gauge placement, then thesse can be fitted into the VC. You need to have some knowledge about panel editing, but lots of help is available, and you can even download several completed panel retrofits for a huge variety of 3rd party add-on aircraft. I am holding out for Ernie Alston to do some of his magic with these gauges such that they can work with most or all Carenado aircraft because the defaulkt FMC and nav equipoment is so dire that the market is desperate for ISG gauges to fully model these machine. However, I wouldn't wish to replace my screens or NDs because I don't like the idea of losing Carenado EFIS panel functionality or weather / terrain radar as fitted in the Carenado ATR series. https://www.dropbox.com/s/btkrsbl9r71tron/ISG and ATR.PNG?dl=0

Whilst most people swap their FMCs to Flight1 or Reality GTNs, a few use the ageing yet incredible ISG Simvionics navdata ready gauges. The are replacement gauges that, with knowledge, can be added to most aircraft as 2D windows or occasionally in the VC. I use the ISG Universal FMC as a 2D pop up, along with EFIS & MCU, to steer my Carenado aircraft. When you hit LNAV on the ISG MCU with HDG mode set on the AP, your aircraft will track routes properly. ISG also provide various displays such as PFDs & NDs which can be substituted for the original gauges. On some aircraft, ISG routes will appear on the ND, if not you’d need to use the displays. if you are skilled and proficient at panel editing, and you need to be, you can make a pretty decent avionics fit that improves those fitted by Carenado (because TBH those are truly awful). So, it’s not a perfect solution but a compromise, though it is IMO closer in terms of substituting gauges that are like for like. I try not swapping displays because then I would lose functionality like WXR and other EFIS commands, but the trouble is that routes aren’t always drawn on the NDs. To me, whilst GTNs are totally amazing, they seem not to fit or belong in some of the aircraft types, if you know what I mean.

Nicely worded, and precisely expressing one of P2A’s few missing links - optional random ATC constraint waiving, be it altitude and/or speed. Fabio

Thanks. Fabio

Hi, There are numerous SID’s that have altitude constraints waypoint after waypoint, for instance some leaving Gatwick EGKK airspace, and I would like to know if there is a way to ask for clearance to climb through them? Traffic permitting, I might wish to climb through such restructions, but P2A quite correctly tells me to descend (which I don’t do). There is a P2A “at pilots discretion” for enroute descents, but I’m looking for an early climb (or step climb). Thanks, Fabio

Not really, sorry. I use the ISG UFMC and EFIS as 2D and simply pop the AP in HDG mode

The ISG SimAvionics gauges are pretty good, though not at a Majestic level.

Thank you, good advice, and something that I didn’t know.

It’s not as if Carenado are about to make changes to their universal FMC despite having been asked politely. In fact, they’ve not responded favourably to tickets raised on the subject. I don’t even believe that they have ever used their own UFMC in earnest otherwise they’d know how bad it really is. I’m afraid that my opinion of Carenado products is the same as my opinion of the people behind them, and that is that they are no deeper than veneer. Rather than continue to receive PM’s all asking for the same information, I’ll instead post the instructions here. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing this, though I’m sure the mods will act accordingly if there is. Whilst you won’t be altering the original Carenado FMCF50.CAB & FMCSF34.CAB files, it might still be wise to backup them up. THIS MOD WILL NOT CHANGE HOW WELL THE F50 UFMC WORKS - IT WILL ONLY ALLOW YOU TO ENTER ADVISORY ALTITUDE'S. Create a folder called FMCF50, then double click the FMCSF34.CAB file to open it, select all files and then copy and paste these into your new folder. Double click the FMCF50.CAB file, highlight the FMC_configF50.XML file, and copy and paste it into your FMCF50 folder. Move your FMCF50 folder into your ..\Carenado F50\panel folder. Fire up your sim; the F50 will now read the new hybrid FMCF50 folder rather than the FMCF50.CAB file. That’s it!

PM sent!

Indeed, by now Carenado have set our expectation levels, thus there can be no surprises...

I asked them whether they’d ever flown one of their FMC equipped aircraft, because if they had, they’d fully understand how short of the mark they are. Not just short of the mark, but also inadequate, and by that I mean dysfunctional. Simply, they’ve never attempted to use them in earnest or they’d know how poor they are. Nope, I have one of everything by Carenado, and as much as I’d like to have the EMB120, I just know that the FMC would be useless. The thing is that the GTN for me simply doesn’t fit. Yes it works wonderfully, but it’s a square peg in a round hole. I don’t mean aesthetics, but rather more about original equipment. My solution has been to dovetail into the VC’s the excellent 64-bit ISG SimAvionics for P3D4. Not perfect, but better. Why oh why doesn’t Carenado fix what is broken? I mean they’d only need to fix their implementation of the generic UFMC once because it’s the same basic unit in all of their aircraft. What are nonsense they are - seemingly very happy to take our money yet selfish enough to ignore our genuine pleas. X-Plane has by default a reasonable facsimile of a generic FMC, and Carenado fit this into their XP wares but sadly they insist on delivering their own inferior branded products for P3D4.

Thanks, very interesting. Didn’t know it had a prop brake option, presumably like the ATR. Fabio

Thanks, that’s interesting. I went as far as buying the Just Planes REX Airlines DVD (it was on sale) to get a better impression of this aircraft, and then the Viking Productions Estonian Airlines SAAB 340 but neither cover in any real detail their use of CTOT or power settings. I was still none the wiser! The Leading Edge Simulations SAAB 340A for X-Plane is awesome, and it has CTOT modelled, and is my go to turboprop in that platform. I found this informative thread about CTOT, which one person describes as an elementary auto throttle! I really do unstandard what he means when he says you never know whether you’ll get a torque increase or decrease when switching off CTOT. In XP’s LES SAAB you bring the throttles up slowly beyond 50% (from memory) and you then leave throttles where they stand at the point where the CTOT mechanism takes over by metering in fuel to obtain the torque that you have dialled in. When you switch off CTOT, where your throttles lie then becomes your climb power...OR NOT as often the power levers will be way too far back. Does this sound vaguely right? May I ask also roughly what sort of routes you flew, and also the loads and fuel carried - were you lightly loaded or at MAUW? Thanks, Fabio