Propeller control woes
-
iangrant1981
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2018 5:33 pm
Propeller control woes
I've literally spent hours trying to get the PC-6 flyable but I'm having no luck at all. I get one of two problems no matter what I try:
1. I can control the power and prop levers but the propeller is stuck at a very low RPM. It's at about 300 RPM at idle and won't go much about 500 when I apply power.
2. When I stumble upon a configuration that doesn't screw up the propeller idle, I have issues with one or more of the controls.
I've tried nearly every combination and this low prop RPM persists through nearly all of them. I've followed the instructions to the letter and have tried enabling and disabling the macros both together and individually. Nothing is working for me. I've lost hours to this.
I even tried loading up a repaint that didn't have any controls assigned to it except for the controls.xml file (i.e. no associated profile in FSUIPC) and after start up the propeller is STILL stuck at 300 RPM. I'm at my wits end, I can't even fly this how it is.
Two other bits- 1, if I hit CTRL+F4 the prop momentarily jumps to the correct idle speed but drops down. 2, once or twice the prop rpm seemed to be ok after start up but as soon as I touched the power lever the prop RPM dropped. This usually isn't the case though.
1. I can control the power and prop levers but the propeller is stuck at a very low RPM. It's at about 300 RPM at idle and won't go much about 500 when I apply power.
2. When I stumble upon a configuration that doesn't screw up the propeller idle, I have issues with one or more of the controls.
I've tried nearly every combination and this low prop RPM persists through nearly all of them. I've followed the instructions to the letter and have tried enabling and disabling the macros both together and individually. Nothing is working for me. I've lost hours to this.
I even tried loading up a repaint that didn't have any controls assigned to it except for the controls.xml file (i.e. no associated profile in FSUIPC) and after start up the propeller is STILL stuck at 300 RPM. I'm at my wits end, I can't even fly this how it is.
Two other bits- 1, if I hit CTRL+F4 the prop momentarily jumps to the correct idle speed but drops down. 2, once or twice the prop rpm seemed to be ok after start up but as soon as I touched the power lever the prop RPM dropped. This usually isn't the case though.
-
Taguilo
- Posts: 658
- Joined: Sun May 11, 2014 11:49 am
Re: Propeller control woes
Hi,
First of all, are you selecting the Porter from other aircraft?
You must ensure to display the Startup Scenario screen when loading P3D. Do not start from a preloaded custom aircraft.
Once the Startup Scenario displays, just select the Porter, select an airport, etc and run it. If you save a Porter's flight, you can also load it from the Scenario page.
Not following these steps may lead to engine troubles like it seems you are experiencing, especially if switching to Porter from a non turboprop aircraft.
Tomas
First of all, are you selecting the Porter from other aircraft?
You must ensure to display the Startup Scenario screen when loading P3D. Do not start from a preloaded custom aircraft.
Once the Startup Scenario displays, just select the Porter, select an airport, etc and run it. If you save a Porter's flight, you can also load it from the Scenario page.
Not following these steps may lead to engine troubles like it seems you are experiencing, especially if switching to Porter from a non turboprop aircraft.
Tomas
-
iangrant1981
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2018 5:33 pm
Re: Propeller control woes
I got it working through a work around.
Something was forcing it into feather and I don't know what. I eliminated the possibility of a control conflict like I mentioned by loading up a new livery that I hadn't configured controls for (I have no controls at all assigned through P3D itself).
What I did, and I wouldn't recommend this as I know MilViz wouldn't, was disabled the controls.xml file. After reading through the entire code I realized that it was translating percentage to actual control position (-16XXX-+16XXX) and that something just wasn't agreeing. After I renamed the file and assigned my controls normally everything works EXCEPT for that I can't feather the prop through the axis range. For that I'm just using the button at the bottom of the range on my Saitek to command prop pitch decr. I assigned power to throttle_1_set so that I can calibrate the idle and reverse ranges from which the Porter doesn't seem to suffer any ill effects from. I can't do this with the prop because assigning it to propeller_1_set results in strange behavior but assigning it to just propeller works fine.
What I will probably go back and do is review the code in the XML to make sure that it's not disabling my CWS as I saw something in there about that. Since that wasn't my main focus and I was troubleshooting the the engine controls I ignore the CWS part (CWS doesn't do me much good if I can't get the plane in the air!). I may edit out the engine control bits to preserve CWS if I see a need. I realize that this probably isn't supported by MilViz so I am doing this in full knowledge that I'm on my own on that particular endeavor. I do have experience in XML gauge programming which is why I even knew what I was looking at in the first place. I would NOT recommend anyone else go messing around in there outside of what is outlined in the manual. I'm posting it here because I thought the solution might be useful info for the MilViz team.
P.S. the plane is BRILLIANT! I took it for a short flight and it's fantastic. So glad I got my issues sorted because I think I'm going to love this plane.
Something was forcing it into feather and I don't know what. I eliminated the possibility of a control conflict like I mentioned by loading up a new livery that I hadn't configured controls for (I have no controls at all assigned through P3D itself).
What I did, and I wouldn't recommend this as I know MilViz wouldn't, was disabled the controls.xml file. After reading through the entire code I realized that it was translating percentage to actual control position (-16XXX-+16XXX) and that something just wasn't agreeing. After I renamed the file and assigned my controls normally everything works EXCEPT for that I can't feather the prop through the axis range. For that I'm just using the button at the bottom of the range on my Saitek to command prop pitch decr. I assigned power to throttle_1_set so that I can calibrate the idle and reverse ranges from which the Porter doesn't seem to suffer any ill effects from. I can't do this with the prop because assigning it to propeller_1_set results in strange behavior but assigning it to just propeller works fine.
What I will probably go back and do is review the code in the XML to make sure that it's not disabling my CWS as I saw something in there about that. Since that wasn't my main focus and I was troubleshooting the the engine controls I ignore the CWS part (CWS doesn't do me much good if I can't get the plane in the air!). I may edit out the engine control bits to preserve CWS if I see a need. I realize that this probably isn't supported by MilViz so I am doing this in full knowledge that I'm on my own on that particular endeavor. I do have experience in XML gauge programming which is why I even knew what I was looking at in the first place. I would NOT recommend anyone else go messing around in there outside of what is outlined in the manual. I'm posting it here because I thought the solution might be useful info for the MilViz team.
P.S. the plane is BRILLIANT! I took it for a short flight and it's fantastic. So glad I got my issues sorted because I think I'm going to love this plane.