A36 Prop Control

[StevenJ]

Hi! If only I could free up more time to fly your new A36!! What a fantastic plane! Thanks Lou and company!

My question: Could someone inform me of the proper use of the prop/rpm lever? I'm having some problems with it. After reaching low level cruise, say 4500 ft, I have slightly pulled it back and immediatley the aircraft lunges to the left and becomes difficult to control. I've checked my CH Flight Sim Yoke and the calibration seems ok, but I'm wondering if I'm not understanding how/when to adjust the prop, or if perhaps my controls are not properly set up.
Thanks for any advice.
Steve J.

[ToddNicholson]

That doesn't sound normal. The aircraft shouldn't lunge to the left when you pull back on the prop. Do you have your aircraft realism settings set per the user manual? If I remember correctly, the manual recommends that the P-factor slider be all the way left. You might check that section of the manual, then after making those adjustments, fly again and see if the behaviour still exists.

[StevenJ]

Thanks Todd, for the prompt response. The P-factor may be the culprit. I just checked the settings and found that I had the realism settings on "hard" which places all the sliders hard right. I saw the reference in Peter's tutorial to setting the P-factor to the left, but since I haven't had time yet to fly that tutorial, I wasn't sure if that was a general setting that should always be used.
Hopefully this will solve the problem.

Still, back to the other part of my question... is the proper operation to slightly lean the mixture and reduce the prop rpm once you are established at cruise (even if a short hop and a fairly low altitude, say 4500 feet?)
Thanks again for your help.
Steve J.

[ToddNicholson]

Check Section 5-24 of the manual about using the EDM700 DEGT gauge. I use that method of leaning and it works very well. I always adjust MP and prop speed using the cruise charts in Section 6 first, then lean using the EDM700.

[StevenJ]

I'm still having problems with the A36 prop control. I have flown Peter's autopilot tutorial flights and have flown some circuits at my home airport. But on other flights whenever I move the prop lever even the slightest bit back (at cruise or slightly climbing), the plane lunges violently to the left. When the autopilot is engaged it tries to correct for the movement left and loss of altitude but quickly goes to a high angle of attack when regaining alitude and stalls out. When I turn off the autopilot, it feels like the aircraft pitch and trim is completely messed up and is very difficult to regain control. I have changed the p-factor and torque to full left in aircraft realism, with other levers right, have autorudder disabled. I have calibrated my CH Yoke and Pedals and everything works perfectly unless I even slightly move the prop control. Appreciate any help as to what may be the problem. Other than this problem, I am having a ball with the A36!
Thanks, Steve J.

(Edit: Added my basic system specs) Dell Dimension 8400, 3.4GHz, 1GB DDR2SDRAM@533, 256MB GeForce 6800, 250GB HD/7200, Audigy 2ZS, Windows XP Media Center, CH Yoke and Pedals.

[ToddNicholson]

Since no other customers have posted anything about this, and since it never once came up during testing, I'd have to say you have a very system-specific issue going on here. My first suggestion would be to switch to the A36 after loading the default flight (as described in the manual). If that doesn't help, I'd suggest uninstalling and reinstalling the A36. Let us know if that helps.

[StevenJ]

Todd, thanks again for the prompt reply.

I loaded the default Cessna flight from KSEA and then switched aircraft to the A36. Still the same problem upon adjusting the prop.

I will try to uninstall and then reinstall the A36.

Todd, I assume I use the "uninstall A36" item under the Programs/Dreamfleet/A36 menu? Will this also delete the Garmin trainer?

Then I assume I just start the A36 purchasing module program and reinstall with my registration key? Is there anything different I need to be careful of when reinstalling?

Thanks, Steve J.

[PhilC]

Before you go to all that trouble make sure that you don't accidently have that control linked to something other that prop. It sounds like it may be linked to the rudder function. Check the assignments in FS9.

[StevenJ]

Phil -
Thanks for your reply.....I think that must be it. (not sure why I didn't check this first thing.....)

I have no idea how, but my yoke assignments seem to been changed.....The throttle and mixture sliders work fine, but when I pull up the engine controls the prop lever shows no movement, even though the Yoke is calibrated properly. I looked in assignments quickly but didn't have time to figure out the problem.

I'll fix this tonight when I return home.....in the meantime, if anyone who has a CH Yoke could tell me exactly how the sliders should be assigned in the control "assignment" menu that would help alot.

Thanks again for your help.
Steve J.

[StevenJ]

Ok, sorry if I'm trying your patience with these prop control questions, but I think i've just about got it. My only remaining problem seems to be in calibrating the prop control.

I'm not sure how my prop control assignment got changed to the rudder, I never changed it via the assignments menu, but somehow it got changed. I now have it reassigned and everything appears to work on the ground when I'm comparing my CH Yoke throttle/prop/mixture lever movement with the movement shown on the engine control lever pop-up.

But while throttle and mixture go from 0 to 100% (I'm reading the values with the mouse pointer over the lever), my prop control only goes from 28% to 72%. I can move the lever forward to 100% with my mouse for example, but the CH Yoke lever will only get it between 28 and 72%. I have tried recalibrating the lever with both the CH Control Manager and also the Calibration utility within fs9 (the calibration screen looks the same).

I'm assuming my prop control range from the Yoke should also be a full 0-100%. I'll be testing this out later this evening. Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks again, Steve J.

[zfehr]

Hi Steve,

Go into the sensitivities menu in FS2004 and make sure it is set to 100% for all of the engine control levers (all joystick assignments for that matter). For some reason Microsoft will assign these controls and the sensitivities with a mind of its own. If you unplug your controller and then plug it in again it can also erase all previous settings and make up something new.

Zane

[PhilC]

Steve,
Glad you found the problem. I'm not going to be much help on the calibration issue because I use FSUIPC for the calibration of my yoke and pedals. You have to have the registered version to activate the calibration feature but I highly recommend it.

[StevenJ]

Todd, Phil and Zane

Thanks for all your help in solving this problem for me. Everything is working fine now. Adjusting the prop sensitivity back to full right with no null zone gave me the 0-100% adjustment on the prop.

I should have checked the assignments and sensitivities first, but I have never had any problems with them changing since I first loaded fs9. But for some unknown reason they changed and had to be reset.
Appreciate your patience and willingness to help.

Really enjoying this great plane!
Steve J.
Manassas, VA.

[alastairmonk]

Hi Steve !

Glad things are now back to normal. Sometimes its the most obvious things that we all overlook, and when something like this happens its a reminder to us all !

Hopefully, now that the issue is resolved, we can provide a faster fix to the net person who has this, so this thread will have proved useful.

Cheers,

Alastair