Some questions, and my current opinion regarding the KA350i

[FinnJacobsen]

Today I have spend some time tinkering around with the KA350i.


First and foremost it looks good. The VC is nicely modelled and FPS rather good for a glass cockpit.
Turbine simulation also seems good, and the flightmodel feels believable (Have never flown a KA350i).

That being said I also feels that the systems, especially the PL21, has many bugs, or at least leaves alot of questions open.

I have had a handfull of CTD's when navigating around the MCDU menu's, and setting up flightplans, so it´s far from stable code.


There are also some stuff in the MCDU that raises some questions.

When setting up the following flightplan:
EKBI RW27 SID:ABINO6A - ABINO - T56 - TESPI - STAR:TESPI5N - RWY22L EKCH

After takeoff from RW27 there is an altitude fix (700). The distance from this fix to BI364 simply keeps increasing to serveral thousands NM.

In the Perfomance page I have set CRZ ALT to 8.000 ft (Note that even when transition altitude is set to 5.000 ft, altitudes does not change to Flight level before above 18.000 ft), but on the LEGS page this isn´t reflected on the right side. Only an altitude restriction at ABINO set to 6000B is set, which is indicated in magenta above the altitude tape on the PFD.
So instead of climbing to 6.000 ft and stay there until past ABINO, where it should start climbing towards 8.000 ft, it simply stays at 6.000 ft and I have to manually enter 8000 at the next waypoint (TESPI).

Once at 8.000 ft and enabeling VNAV for the descend, I get a TOD marker on the PFD Nav display, but where can I read distance to TOD ?
Normally You would be able to see that on the MCDU (preferable on one of the VNAV pages.

The rest of the descend went fine, though I had to fiddle with the NAV Source to lock on to the Localizer and Glideslope - probably I missed the correct procedure, but where can I find that described ?


Final conclusion for me is that there are quite a few bugs still present.


Many of the CTD's I have seen are triggered by clicking on the LSK for an option that allready has been set on the MCDU. The amount of possible CTD's should not have been at this extend for a release version.

On the product shop page is also mentioned a Chart Viewer system, but again no description on how to use - does it rely on manually inserted PDF files or some kind of Navigraph Chart functionas announced for more than a year ago ? (see this link): https://fselite.net/news/milviz-tease-n ... r-ka-350i/

It´s also hard to determine wether there is a bug, or simply wrong procedures, or understanding of how the PL21 works - again for a complex product, much better documentation should have been in the package from day one. Current stat leaves the user in the dark.
I didn´t expect a full KS350i or PL21 manual to be included, but certainly something describing how to use and setup the various systems and MCDU pages.

I don´t know what Milviz mean with "Beyond Study Level" - No doubt that it is a highend product, but it does not surpass any other highend addons I know. Release seems a bit rushed (maybe due to the Holiday season), despite the long development time.

My post might be seen as negative, but I must also be honest and say that for a 80$ product I had expected it to be more finished.


FinnJ

[doodlebug]

Hi Finn,

Thanks for you feedback.
The team is already preparing fixes for many of the issues you mention.

All the best - Osh

[Taguilo]

Hi Finn,

Thanks for your honest comments.

I obviously agree with you that there should have been documentation, at least basic, on how to operate the most important functions, provided in the package. That's our fault and we again apologize for that. We expect to be releasing the first doc asap.

I also believe that guessing on how to operate this aircraft may be a tough task, and therefore, appart for one or another CTD, with such few elements is not possible to make any correct evaluation.

As it is stated, believe it or not, this aircraft is aimed to become a pilot training device. Surely will take some adjustments and SP comings, but most important is the logic in all the code is focused on that goal.

Now it is only one day off to public. Let's give it some time to warm up!

Regards

Tomas

[FinnJacobsen]

Thanks Taguilo for answering.

I have been a flight simmer for serveral decades now and plan to be so in the future, so I guess I can find some patience and wait for the updates thats in the line.

[lequinne]

Thanks for your detailed information. There is a hotfix inbound with the EKBI departure bug fixed, and we think the CTDs are fixed as well.

Farley

[matpietsch]

Good to hear. I would sign what Finn said. But good to hear that you are committed. If you want to develop the PL21 further that is good news. Hope it wont take to long to get it into a realistic and full featured state.