leegra Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 I've been having a problem every so often with the electric power suddenly shutting down in the midst of a flight and refusing to come back on. The panel goes blank and a message appears in the upper left corner of the screen that says I must restart electrical power to get the radio back on. When I switch to the overhead panel and check the Electrical portion, everything appears ON and normal. This includes the Battery and all AC Busses. I turn them off and back on, but still no power to the radio or the panel gauges...And, that's the end of the flight...These flights are all done with NO FAILURES requested... This all happens unexpectedly and without me doing anything unusual to the controls. Sometimes it happens while the co-pilot is flying the plane...Has anyone else experienced something similar? And, how do you restore electric power when the overhead panel says its still on? ...All comments and suggestions much appreciated... Lee Graves (Ryzen 5 3600 cpu; ASUS ROG B-550-F MB; 32 GB Corsair memory; GeForce 2060 video card; Sabrent 1 TB SSD; ASUS 27" Gaming Monitor; Updated Win 10; ANTEC case) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herc79 Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 Which aircraft? Do you follow the preflight and all the other checklists? Checklists exist for a reason! Just a raw guess, but it seems you are missing a switch setting in the cockpit, so you start off with electrics... but then the battery runs out of juice... because you aren't generating new electricity to sustain the aircraft flight and re-charge the battery. Just a guess. I remember way back in the day, a preflight engine run-up included checking to make sure each of the two magnetos were able to keep the engine and all systems running, so you'd work off only one magneto, then switch to the other one... if everything started failing, then you'd need a new magneto! Beyond that, I think we'd need to know which specific aircraft type, and look up the pilot operating handbook and/or the checklists! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leegra Posted April 1, 2022 Author Share Posted April 1, 2022 Thanks Herc79 for the comeback...The Dreamliner (B-787) is my current plane-of-choice and its state-of-the-art computer electronics panel automatically corrects many problems before the pilots are even aware they exist. Unfortunately, not mine, however (lol)...I went through the normal before flight check lists and my failing electric problem still occasionally occurs... As far as checking both mags, I believe that is still routinely done before every propeller flight...Thanks again for the suggestions...I'm still searching... Lee Graves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herc79 Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 Yea, I mean since you followed the checklist, then maybe it's a new bug. Sometimes, not often, but sometimes a dev update can "break" something that was working just fine in previous versions... maybe that's what happened here, as I can assure you many people flew the Dreamliner long distances without losing power like you have. Maybe see if you can submit thiss as a possible bug report? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger1962 Posted April 2, 2022 Share Posted April 2, 2022 I've been having a problem every so often with the electric power suddenly shutting down in the midst of a flight and refusing to come back on. See this thread on the official forums: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/how-do-you-prevent-the-787-batteries-from-dying-mid-flight/506461 Tim Wright "The older I get, the better I was..." Xbox Series X, Asus Prime H510M-K, Intel Core i5-11400F 4.40GHz, 16Gb DDR4 3200, 2TB WD Black NVME SSD, 1TB Samsung SATA SSD NVidia RTX3060 Ti 8Gb, Logitech Flight Yoke System, CH Pro Pedals, Acer K272HL 27", Windows 11 Home x64 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herc79 Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 Thanks Tim! soooo.... APU on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leegra Posted April 3, 2022 Author Share Posted April 3, 2022 Yes, thanks Tim...It occurred to me also, to try getting the APU running to re-charge the batteries. As soon as I turned it on, the Battery ON light switched to blank and back to ON...This time, however. it really was ON and the instrument panel came alive, as well as ATC...And, thanks Herc79, for confirming another way to use the APU...Love this forum... Lee Graves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herc79 Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 Ok but I'm not clear about the APU use... at what point does one turn off the APU ? AFAIK, APU's are used to provide power when the main engines aren't running and ground power is not available... thus by the time you are actually in the air, the APU should probably be turned off soon after, unless you have an unexpected electrical failure (meaning something actually broke, not working properly). I seem to recall that when I was at the airport, often enough even planes that did have APU's often didn't use them if we could provide a Ground Power Unit, which is just a very fancy heavy power cables system to given enough juice for the plane's electrical needs before engine start. And when it came time to fire up the main engines, the crew would partially divert the electrical to spin up each turbine. Saves APU fuel burn, saves cycles and hours on APU eventual overhauls or maintenance. I mean, it's not NORMAL for APU's to be used for the whole flight, is it?!? It seems to me from the offsite thread, that using the APU in the MSFS 787 was more a bug workaround than an actual "realistic use every time" checklist item... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leegra Posted April 4, 2022 Author Share Posted April 4, 2022 The APU, as I understand it, is normally turned off as soon as the engines are up and running. I believe confirming an off APU is part of most (if not all) "Before Take-off" check lists. I wasn't sure it would turn on in-flight (and re-charge the batteries)...As soon as I saw electrical power had been restored, I turned it off and everything continued operating normally...Imagine the relief of the crew if this were an actual in-flight occurrence.. Lee Graves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinfolsom Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 The APU can be used in flight for unusual circumstances such as extreme electrical demands or an engine generator malfunction. Regards Kevin MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Plus Motherboard, I9-10900K 5.1 Ghz, 64 GB 3200 DDR4 Ram, Nvidia RTX 4080 16GB V-Ram, 1 TB NVMe M.2 Drive For Windows 11, 2 TB NVMe M.2 Drive For MSFS, 850W P/S, HP Reverb G2 VR Headset, Honeycomb Alpha Yoke, Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Unit, Saitek Pro Flight Combat Rudder Pedals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leegra Posted April 4, 2022 Author Share Posted April 4, 2022 One of Captain Sullenberger's first acts, after the two-engine bird strike over the Hudson River. It restored the radio, instruments, and cabin lights... Lee Gtaves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herc79 Posted April 6, 2022 Share Posted April 6, 2022 No doubt for emergencies, fire it up! But for normal flight it's not needed AFAIK. Also remember that many airliners have RAT's: A ram air turbine (RAT) is a small wind turbine that is connected to a hydraulic pump, or electrical generator, installed in an aircraft and used as a power source. The RAT generates power from the airstream by ram pressure due to the speed of the aircraft. I seem to recall also that when a few older airliners are about to takeoff from locations that are "high and humid", they might add the APU as a tiny bit of extra thrust for a tiny additional safety margin... I think the B-727 and 747-100 might have been two examples, from summer humid high altitudes. I don't think that WAS common, and I don't think that's EVER used on the modern powerful airliners of the last 30 years... the new ones have HUGE amounts of excess thrust for TOGA power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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