Hobbs Meter INOP

[TheLurk]

Doesnt really fit in any of the other threads, but the hobbs meter on the right lower panel seems to be INOP, been flying for about 2hrs now and it still shows 0

the VAC, PNEUMATIC PRESS, OXYGEN and CABIN AIR indicators seem to work fine, the hobbs doesnt.... not a big deal but maybe a cosmetic item to fix..

cheers
Tobi

[jarek]

Yes it is INOP indeed. It will start counting as soon as main gear leaves the ground. But as big King Airs are usually commercial planes, we still need a good idea how to increment this counter in order to be realistic. So any comments welcome.

[Ephedrin]

Yes it is INOP indeed. It will start counting as soon as main gear leaves the ground. But as big King Airs are usually commercial planes, we still need a good idea how to increment this counter in order to be realistic. So any comments welcome.

I probably simply misunderstand you but how can a Hobbs Meter be realistic or unrealistic, when you already know how it works? Where is the difference wether a KingAir is used commercially or as a privat or business airplane?

Edit: Ahh, forget it... I read "implement" instead of "increment", pardon me.

[KenG]

To be honest, I did not check the Hobbs meter, because I do my own flight time tracking. I've always considered that thing for maintenance time tracking only.

It should be an easy fix to get it implemented and I will speak with the Devs after Christmas.

[jarek]

Where is the difference wether a KingAir is used commercially or as a privat or business airplane?

NP. I could be more precise Personally I see two options: either "private use", so value from meter could be saved and when you start scenario again, this value will be restored or - in "commercial" case, value of the meter will be incremented by some average flight time that KA does daily, multiplied by number of days elapsed from last flight. Bit more complicated but doable I believe. Just some idea here.

[trevorbair]

I agree that this would be a good addition and think that simply having it show a running incremented flight time that persists from session to session would be great for those who want to virtually track MX and airframe flight time for simulated flight department operations (thinking FS Economy or the like). As far as incrementing it, I'd prefer wheels up to wheels down and those wishing to track "logbook time" can do the math. For example, in the Caravan, our Hobbs only starts counting once the aircraft passes around 60 knots; so it basically measures wheels-up to wheels-down time and when we enter logbook time, we add in .2 - .3 for the ground ops. My understanding is that in the King Air, the flight hour meter is connected to the right main squat switch so you have an even truer sense of flight time. I think that'd be an ideal way of implementing it if it's possible.

[iangrant1981]

I know for Learjets, it's only running with the airplane airborne. In fact, the whole plane switches to 'air mode' if certain criteria are met, namely the aircraft has power, the door is closed and the weight is off the wheels.

Fun fact: it is possible to activate air mode while on the ground if the aircraft is on jacks and the door is closed. It shouldn't but does happen during maintenance sometimes if someone forgets and will indeed cause the Hobbs to start counting.

My preference would be to have it work realistically and keep a cumulative total. Bonus points if it's made so that it counts each paint scheme separately e.g. for each flightsim.X section in the aircraft.cfg it kept a separate dat or ini file to keep track of each 'airframe' individually.

[N4GIX]

For whatever it's worth, FSX and P3D maintain 'hobbs time' automatically and stores the cumulative total on a per-livery and per-engine basis. All that is required is to read each engine and then sum their respective totals for display on the "Hobbs" meter. The only "fly in the ointment" is that the sim(s) are recording engine running time, so stationary ground operations are included in the saved totals. I can guarantee you that I've not actually "flown" 116 hours!

It seems obvious that both MS and L-M consider this to be a record of engine operations for maintenance reasons. The one advantage of using these stored times is that the "Hobbs" will be reporting accumulated engine time from the instant the customers first began using the KA...

These state.cfg files are kept here:
C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\SimObjects\MV_King_Air_350i

Note that in the example below each livery is delineated as {FltSim.n] where n is the livery entry in the aircraft.cfg.

state.cfg

Code: Select all

[FltSim.0]
atc_airline=
atc_flight_number=0
[engine.0]
accumulated_time=115.951474
[engine.1]
accumulated_time=112.553293
[FltSim.3]
atc_airline=
atc_flight_number=0
[FltSim.1]
atc_airline=
atc_flight_number=0
[FltSim.2]
atc_airline=
atc_flight_number=0

[B747F]

I would like the hour meter to work if this is still planned in an update thank you.

[N4GIX]

I would like the hour meter to work if this is still planned in an update thank you.

I coded the Hobbs meter some months ago. It should be working now.

[B747F]

I would like the hour meter to work if this is still planned in an update thank you.

I coded the Hobbs meter some months ago. It should be working now.

I purchased and installed yesterday and the number in flight now 2 hrs in... 00000

[tamsini]

Just curious if this is getting looked at or will be placed on the back-burner after the SP/HF. Mine is still at zero after 4000nm.

Thanks,
Mario

[B747F]

I would like the hour meter to work if this is still planned in an update thank you.

I coded the Hobbs meter some months ago. It should be working now.

The 1.1 hotfix installed and still no Hobbs operative

[N4GIX]

The code for Hobbs was added to the Clock.xml file some weeks ago.

Here is the file. Drop it into the ..\panel\B350i folder and overwrite the one there already. Since the sim itself keeps track of engine hours, once this new file is added the next time you load the KA the total time will automatically be displayed!

[tamsini]

Not sure if I'm reading this right. After copying the file into the above folder, I still have 0000.

State.cfg :

[FltSim.0]
atc_airline=
atc_flight_number=350KA
[engine.0]
accumulated_time=63.090656
[engine.1]
accumulated_time=63.707057

Which corresponds to aircraft.cfg:

[fltsim.0]
title=Milviz KA350i N70EU

Any ideas?

Mario