Level of Documentation

[freeze1058]

Dear Oisin,
Dear team,

merry Christmas to all of you!

I've followed the development of this product for quite some time and it was a immediate purchase for me. Nevertheless I'm quite disappointed about the level of documentation provided:

The product is promoted as "Beyond Study Level", "Fly by the Book" and "Highly Detailed Product Manuals Included". Comparing this to the actual documentation plus your plans for tutorial videos this sounds like a bad joke. Besides no manual for the avionics I'm also missing full performance tables to actually be able to "fly by the book".

Tutorials are a very nice addition to get started fast, however they should not replace written manuals.

In another topic you wrote that you decided not to use the original manufacturers documentation. Why not? Other developers are doing this as well. The only limitation I could imagine are copyright restrictions by the real world publishers.

Appreciate your comments on getting full (original) documentation for the aircraft (especially performance tables) and Proline 21/FMS avionics.

Cheers,

Stefan

[doodlebug]

You nailed it with copyright restrictions.
Performance charts are here: Cruise Charts
Videos are coming and will be very thorough.

[Ephedrin]

Stefan,

I don't want to share a link here as I suppose that would violate the copyright as well but if you search Google for "Proline 21 manual" the first page has a lot of material about how to use it, even an official manual from Rockwell Collins.

[alehead]

There is nothing available legally online...

Every link on a google search leads to some dubious paywall-protected sites that are illegally hosting copyrighted documents...

I really need a good guide on how this ProLine 21 suite works... any ideas?

A

[speedbird747]

I am very new to aircraft smaller than the B777 and have found the lack of introductory documentation very disappointing. Last December, Doodlebug said that there will be thorough videos available to us.
So far, I have found the videos made by a pilot whose voice is so quiet at times as to not be understandable, and addressed to pilots already having a reasonable knowledge of the aircraft. For me this is of little help in getting started.
I certainly do not want to read 100s of pages of manufacturers' documentation, but I do expect manuals or videos addressed at the level of the newby.
Come on Milviz, step up to the plate on a product for which I expected better treatment

[markdosborne88]

Well said, plus one for me. A brief explanation of the systems, controls, fms, autopilot and conducting a simple flight would be sufficient. I've spent a decent amount of money on this aircraft and I'm struggling to complete a simple flight.

Regards,
Mark

[doodlebug]

We were going to jump on it as soon as SP1 was released and hadn't imagined it would take so long.
It is still our intention to produce a series of detailed tutorial videos. In the meantime here's one from a member of our testing team:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIkAaSMZwQc

[FinnJacobsen]

I find it better to wait with more videos before we see the KA350i consolidate.

It would only add to the confusion to make tutorial videos with procedures and features that will change as new updates are released.
There is a FMS-3000 manual on the internet that goes into depth with the functions.
There are also some real world PL21 videos on Youtube detailing some of the procedures and features.

FMS-3000 manual: http://www.hatcheraviation.com/uploads/ ... _Guide.pdf

PL21 videos:
Basic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol__T6qI0O0
VNAV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaLuKMzUnnU
MFD Data: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30TrYJZ-cl8&t=242s
Holding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8eRkLcVGxc
VNAV Appr: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ND4QA-NmU
Approaches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbxzqQ-z4KY

Or Just search Youtobe for "ProLine 21"

I´m not saying that everything shown in th videos and described in the manual will work in the MV KA350i, but most of it does.

[KenG]

There are also some real world PL21 videos on Youtube detailing some of the procedures and features.

Be careful with YouTube videos, not all PL21s are the same. Even in the King Air there are differences in software and hardware revisions. Same with manuals if the manual is not specific to the aircraft and version of software simulated then you could be reading about how something works in a different airplane or features that work differently based on software updates.

Rockwell-Collins makes the PL21 for a lot of different airplanes and the Pl21 is 20 years old now. That is 20 years of updates.

[doodlebug]

What Ken said.

[FinnJacobsen]

sure - thats why I told that not everything might work as shown.
But it ives some starting point for those who are interested.

[Bushido]

In the tutoriel vidéo he take off with the stand by instrument off and did not select the cruise altitude for the pressurisation. I appreciate the effort but this is important miss.