adf knob/leaning/fps questions

[spesimen]

hi folks. have a few comments and questions..

first of all...very nice job!!! this plane looks great and flies great..

1. is there a reason the ADF knob doesn't just work like the altitude knob above it? it's far more convenient to use the mousewheel up/down to change the value than to try and carefully hit the right or left side of the knob, especially in darker light or turbulence. it's also a little wonky in that if you pick the wrong side, you can't just slide the mouse over but have to completely take the pointer off of the control and then move it to the correct side.

2. fps is pretty nice for me with this aircraft! but the Milviz 530 GPS really tanks my framerate when i fly areas that have a lot of water features. i noticed this around ontario, canada and around michigan, for example. in PNG around AYPY, or also some flights i did around eastern europe, i average around 30-40fps, but it drops to 10-15 when i fly around the spots with lots of water..

if i turn off the GPS screen i get the frames back... so i'm doing that as a workaround for now, but i'm wondering if there's anything else i can do with this. making the range lower and decluttering didn't seem to help (maybe because those modes all still display the water?).. i noticed while experimenting with it that a few times i didn't get the fps back even after turning off the screen, but forcing a reload by tweaking scenery settings to and fro did the trick..

3. when parked on sloping runways like the bush strips around PNG near AYPY (the orbx ones) the friction doesn't quite reach 100% ...with the parking brake on the plane slides very slowly, like 1 inch per second down the hills and slopes.. these ones don't seem that steep that they would override the brakes or the chocks..

4. can anyone give advice on proper technique for leaning the engine? i don't really see any of the gauges moving when i lean it...so far i basically just put it at the 3/4 and nudged it leaner every few minutes until it seemed like the needle didn't move anymore..but since it responds so slowly i'm not sure if i'm doing it right.

ok anyway thanks for puttin this beauty together, been having a great time

cheers,
-andy crosby

[MatzeH84]

About the drifting issue on slopes.. Having flown many hours in the PNG area, I can say that it's the same with the AS Twotter or the A2A C182.
I guess this is just a FSX bug we have to deal with.

About leaning, that were my thoughts and observations as well. One would either need a proper sound reaction when the engine gets running rough (the more elegant solution if I was asked) or a EGT gauge.

[High Iron]

Leaning can be done without an EGT gauge in reality but with FSX and thus Prepar3D, it's wonky.

The FDE's in both simulators are biased to fixed pitch propeller aircraft engines. When leaning without an EGT gauge all one has to do is lean until the RPM begins to show a drop. This sometimes occurs after a rise of RPM if the mixture was too rich. Leaning is accomplished by leaning to peak RPM.
On a constant speed propeller the principle will work exactly the same if the prop control is in full fine or the propeller is already at its low pitch stops. Leaning the engine will cause both the Manifold Pressure (MP) and RPM to drop when leaned too far. Again in reality we lean the same as with fixed pitch propellers except that we now watch the MP gauge. When leaning MP will rise if the mixture was too rich and then peak and then drop as we lean past peak. If the propeller is full fine of course it will follow in parallel with the MP gauge, however if the propeller is under governing the RPM will not change at all. In this case as we lean the mixture only the MP will rise then drop past peak lean and during the process the RPM will never change at all.
In FSX and Prepar3D this will not occur because of its fixed pitch propeller bias. So with these sims the opposite will happen. When the propeller is governed lean the mixture and watch the RPM gauge. When it starts to drop you have found peak lean. The MP will never show a change at all which is a massive impossible departure from reality as is the rise and drop in the governed propeller RPM. This silly process works on all constant speed propeller aircraft within the simulators. I believe only A2A has ever modeled the correct reactions by bypassing the built in FDE's on this matter. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Thad

[MatzeH84]

I deliberately did not mention the company with the two letters and once number, but yes.. Flying their planes frequently it's quite a throwback to go back to the FSX bugged engine modeling.
Maybe Milviz can find a way to make the engine sound rough when peak EGT or slightly lean of it is reached, so you could lean by ear then.. Without all the bells and whistles going on behind it with the custom engine modeling.
Would really add to the immersion.

[Taguilo]

Except for the RPM gauge, rest of engine instruments are custom coded (oil and fuel,CHT, MP, electrics, etc) as it is not possible to show realistic values by direct display of FS data.

Regarding the leanig method, it can be done by watching CHT rise while mixture is leaned, until a point when it starts to drop again, that could be used as reference. Raw values are (or should be) around 70 % mixture at SL, 55 % at 5000 ft., 40 % at 10000 ft and 25 % at 15000ft.

Obviously CHT rise is slow (would be better to have an EGT gauge), still it should work fine once get used to spot the right point.

Both MP rise/drop and rough engine sound parameters might be included in the future, but I can't promise anything at this moment.

Tom

[MatzeH84]

Thanks Tom for the insight, much appreciated!

[Nirgal76]

hi folks. have a few comments and questions..

first of all...very nice job!!! this plane looks great and flies great..

1. is there a reason the ADF knob doesn't just work like the altitude knob above it? it's far more convenient to use the mousewheel up/down to change the value than to try and carefully hit the right or left side of the knob, especially in darker light or turbulence. it's also a little wonky in that if you pick the wrong side, you can't just slide the mouse over but have to completely take the pointer off of the control and then move it to the correct side.

Mousewheel workq for me on ADF but the card only makes 1 turn (from 0 to 359).
For example, when you are at 10 and want to go at 350, you can"t decrease, you have to turn cloakwise to 350 because card stop at North.
and when you are at 350 and want to go to 10, you have to turn counter cloakwise to 10
i don't know if it's a bug or intentional but it seems to work like this.
an alternative method to go faster is to left click on the adf card button, maintain left mouse button and drag to left or right.

me, i have this bug:
on some gauges, left click increase and right click decrease and on somes others, only left click is operative. can you confirm that ?

[seb]

Both MP rise/drop and rough engine sound parameters might be included in the future, but I can't promise anything at this moment.

This a thousand times. I do not care too much for 3d gauges and I even could have waited for the STOL variant for this. Being able to tell the state of your plane not only by looking out of the window and onto the the instruments but also by sound is what puts A2A planes in a league of their own compared to many other addons. It just feels way more natural. I cannot remember the time I looked at an CHT gauge for leaning irl. You listen to the engine and you damn well know if it is too lean or not. A whole different level of immersion if it also happens in the sim. Like a little detonation here and there if you forget the carb heat *cough*

edit: Me and my cash would even more happily be parted than after the STOL upgrade. So shut up and take my money Do eeeeet

[Chuck Jodry]

Gentlemen , I have an update to our sounds to offer as an assessment, this will reflect leaning and MP changes to the engine sounds.

Unzip the contents of the two zips files in the DHC-2 Beaver base model

Best CJ

[seb]

yay, testing

[StearmanDriver]

I like the new sounds! Much more "throaty"; it suits the Beaver. Thanks!

[Jotayhen]

I like them also, Chuck.....and for the same reason. Lots of lower notes, more prop sounds especially at elevated RPM's. Great Job! Thank you very much!
John

[StearmanDriver]

Hey Chuck,

Any trick to get the new sounds working for other variants? I tried a flight in the straight floats tonight and had the stock soundset. Tried to put the wavs and entries that reference them in the .cfgs into the Sound and Sound1 folders of the straight floats model, but no luck.

Or is it easier to just wait for an update? That's fine too...

Thanks!