tailspin45

I've accumulated about ten hours in 6DS, and my impression so far is that the bird is like some people: great to look at but screwed up inside. The aircraft should never have been released, and frankly, I'm embarrassed for Carenado. I've purchased and fly several of their aircraft that I've also flown in real life and I thought they were about as good as anyone could create--you could almost smell the leather. But not this one. It has problems ranging from misspellings of placards to systems that don't function correctly. Worst of all, the powerplant sounds and flight model aren't even remotely close. Can these problems be fixed? Of course, but it remains to be seen how quickly Carenado will do it. Until they do I'll feel like I wasted my money, particularly with Milton Shupes brilliant Twin Beech and AT-11 available as freeware. But if/when they do, this baby will become one of my favorites. She really is a beauty, and I expect there will be some outstanding repaints. Hint, hint. Beech Belle (C-45H) N7055K Liberty Belle (D18S) N42C My flights included a couple from Murray Field (KEKA) in Eureka OR, then east to Felts Field in Spokane (KSFF), then back west to Harvey Field (S43) northeast of Seattle, followed by stops down the coast at Astoria (KAST) and Crescent City (KCEC), both after an ILS. I'm writing this enroute to Sonoma County (KSTS) and the weather is beautiful. Went up to 11,000' on the way to Spokane, but the rest of the flights have been at 6-8000'. An economical cruise setting is 28" and 1800RPM and that should give you about 160KTAS on around 40GPH if you lean her properly, and it does. All the goodies are fun to play with--digital EGT, fuel totalizer, GPS with moving map, RNAV, funky old autopilot, weird Edo artificial horizon, and all the usual Bugsmasher knobs and gauges for cowl flaps and oil cooler, etc. Which is to say there are enough toys to keep you entertained and informed on long hops. But don't forget, most of that stuff didn't exist when this lovely old lady was born--in fact, an early model with only a working low-freq radio (like the Milviz Bamboo Bomber) and no gizmos would be a fun alternative. Here are the gripes I've reported to Carenado support, so you won't think you're losing your mind when something doesn't work as expected: there's a black artifact on the top right wing tip that moves around on the wing as the aircraft bounces in turbulence. Not a shadow, sun was directly overhead. Possible DX10 issue? no fuel boost pump switches. There is a lever on the floor that is supposedly a wobble pump, but it actually is an electrical fuel boost pump on/off. Weird. fuel warning lights (low pressure) stay on all the time. the cowl flaps seem to have no effect on airspeed or cylinder head temperature no POH or cockpit diagram engine sounds don't sound like radials, nevermind 985s, at all. [a workaround until fixed is to use Shupe's sound folder] handling is far too twitchy for a twin of this size and weight. As someone else reported, if feels like an aerobatic aircraft. I've tried paying with CFG scalars but so far haven't managed to get the right feel. This bird is an IFR dream in real life but a real handful on the ILS the way it is. fuel indicator selector knob mouse clicks are backward. Left click moves switch clockwise. right mouse click rotates it counterclockwise Label on landing gear clutch misspelled - says "conver" not "cover" CFG file show 35 gallons in right aux (read main) tank, not 25, although it does display as 25 on the gauge (albeit incorrectly--see next dot point) fuel gauges read in gallons not tenths as they should. When full, the gauge shows .25 on rear mains, and .78 on front mains. With fuel selectors on front mains, after 45 minutes front fuel quantity still shows .78 (full), rear mains show .1. After rear main gets to zero the front mains gauge begins to show a decrease, as if both tanks were connected. But they aren't pop-up autopilot trim wheel works backward with mouse clicks, but works correctly with mouse wheel. aircraft.CFG file list ui_typerole as "Single Engine Prop". Should be Twin Engine Prop. Flies the same but screws up listings elsewhere fuel totalizer is missing the switch to select gallons remaining vs gallons used red cockpit lights bleed through roof and shine on the antenna in the dark does the Edo artificial horizon really have the brown gap? (I've never seen one , so don't know). CFG file says it's a flight director, but doesn't have "fly-to" bars. autopilot pitch changes aircraft attitude in altitude hold. If you roll the pitch reference down the aircraft has a weird nose down deck angle but altitude stays the same. Probably a strange interaction between flight model and Saitek autopilot NAV2 OBS acts like an ILS when tuned to a VOR...sorta. Glideslope bar appears and centers horizontally when course bar is centered vertically ground handling is like a car. No inertia, no tendency to ground loop whatsoever with tailwheel locked or unlocked. P-51 had a steerable tailwheel and some Texans had the retrofitted, but they don't feel anything like this bird feels now. No Twin Beech that I know of has ever had a steerable tailwheel. The copilot's fluorescent light switch is labeled 'Left' just like the pilot's. In any case, I think any gauge with radium dials had to be removed because of hysteria over radiation Two post lights over the totalizer have labels suggesting they have something to do with the RNAV. They don't. But she is a beaut, isn't she?

Fuel gauge acts as if rear main and front main tanks are connected, which they aren't. After gauge shows rear tank empty, the front tank starts to show reduced quantity-- all with fuel selector on front main tanks, mind you.

All additional gripes above reported to Carenado

Thank you! A big improvement, but in a way that damns you with faint praise. Anything would be an improvement! Didn't see a 985 sound set for Arezone. [LATER] Oh, wait, you were talking about for the C421

NAV2 OBS acts like an ILS when tuned to a VOR, sorta. Glideslope bar centers when course is centered With fuel selectors on front mains, after 45 minutes front fuel quantity shows .75 (full), rear mains show .1. As it is reading gallons not tenths that means we burned about 15 gallons per engine which is about what the totalized was saying (40.7 gph for both). Ground handling is like a car. No inertia, no tendency to ground loop whatsoever.

Autopilot pitch changes aircraft attitude in altitude hold. If you roll the pitch reference down the aircraft has a weird nose down deck angle but altitude stays the same

Red cockpit lights bleed through roof and shine on antenna in the dark The artificial horizon / flight director is FUBAR

Fuel totalizer is missing switch to select gallons remaining vs gallons used Fuel gauge reads in gallons not tenths. Forward main shows .75 when full, aft mains show .25

Also found ui_typerole="Single Engine Prop" in CFG file. Should be Twin Engine Prop Flies the same, but I use SPAD.next as Saitek interface and couldn't understand why I couldn't find the Beech 18 in assignment list for profiles. Now I know why.

Found the boost pump. It's a manual "Wobble" pump on the floor between the seats. That's fine...they work well. Be nice if they'd mentioned it was there.

Happy to offer whatever insights I can. Posted the following on the other thread, but reader's who may not have seen it:

Okay click here to download a D18S manual Click here for a short post about the Beechcarft and a link to a book of hair-raising tales about how the poor old girl was mistreated by the military. The link is kinda buried at the end of the post so you can skip that if you prefer and just click here .

Already did, posted everything here

Yes found those docs, but pretty sparse. Standby and I'll find a real Twin Beech manual. Will post on this thread.

Doing it as we speak It's a nice looking bird. So far (KAKA to KSFF at 11,000 at the moment) speed and fuel burn for the power setting is about right. But, gosh, it sure seems like a beta version at best despite their claims that it has been tested by real Beech pilots.

Well that sucks. Something on their site made me think this was their preferred place. I'll copy/paste a ticket over there for all of the above

Here's a freeware sound set until Carenado gets it right https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxsnds&DLID=179237

846DS has a black artifact on the top right wing tip that moves around on the wing as the aircraft bounces in turbulence. Not a shadow, sun was directly overhead no fuel boost pump switches no POH or cockpit diagram engine sounds don't sound like radials, nevermind 985s handling is far too twitchy for twin of this size and weight fuel indicator selector knob mouse clicks are backward. Left click moves switch clockwise. right mouse click rotates it counterclockwise Label on landing ger clutch misspelled - save "conver" not "cover"

Also...I can't find fuel boost pump switches anywhere (nor a POH or even cockpit diagram) that shows where they are (if there are any). Generally, they're on the subpanel inboard of the battery and generator switches. Or maybe they just aren't where I'm used to them?

The airframe (skins), panel and interior on this aircraft are awesome, to be sure, but with hundreds of hours in a real Twin Beech, I'm very disappointed in the sound and the way it handles. Is it possible I've installed something incorrectly (FSX Accel)? The sound is more like flat-6s (Aero Commander) than radials, and the roll rate and pitch feel like a much smaller, lighter aircraft. Watch the yoke and roll rate during Matt's performance in a very light Beech 18 at Oshkosh, and you'll see what I mean, our roll rate is much faster :

CFG file show 35 gallons in right aux tank, not 25.

What I didn't say, but should have, is you knew about all this! That's simply wonderful.

Problem solved. For other who read this thread: Tried turning off the flashing beacon, and it helped. Tried turning on landing lights, and it helped. Still some minor blinks, but nothing like it was. Just occured to me that what I'm seeing now could be related to numerous lightning flashes in the area that are evoking the sort bug and causing the dust to flash I'll try changing the weather to CAVU and see what happens and will report back. But the problem is essentially solved as far as I'm concerned.

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and thought-provoking response. I know enough about computers and programming to be dangerous, so your details about sort order were intriguing. I'll bet dollars to donuts my rotating beacon is the culprit. I'll try turning it off first and if that doesn't work I'll try turning on the landing lights. Again, thank you for your helpful (and quick) reply.

I7 3.8Ghz, GTX760, Win 10, FSX Gold. My frame rate is 30 or better and smooth with few blurries and very rare stutters or glitches. But when flying off bush strips the dust cloud kicked up by prop wash flashes. Doesn't occur using DX-9. I've read and reread the Fixer manual but can't identify a tweak that might solve my problem. And I've studied tweaks for fsx.cfg, too, but it's not obvious what I might do to solve the problem that way either. Can anyone with more knowledge than I suggest a solution? You can see what I mean at 0:14 and 0:19. It's worse in the original clip 0:19-0:26, but I edited most of it out by cutting to a different camera. Please disregard the rough aircraft handling, lack of airspeed control, and cursor in the captures. ;-)