Cavulife

I found it; it's for the props only.

The switch on the far right of that row is for “Surface”.

John,

I think there is something wrong with some of the VOR stations you've mentioned. I only tried your flight from YSSY (112.10) to YSRI (110.70).

In the 152 I got no indication that the stations could be selected, meaning no Morse code ID, no needle movement on turning the OBS, no flag indication.

In the 172(not glass) I got an indication that the Garmins could tune the stations, but no Morse code ID, no needle movement, no flags.

You'll see here that the VOR for SY and RIC are shown as well as the DIStance to each, but no needle action when I spin the OBS:

Duh.. :o

 

It certainly is a possible answer, depending on the altitude and temperature. Under some conditions (low altitude, low temp) the two would be close, while at higher altitudes in summer temps it could easily be the difference. In FSX and P3D it's easy enough to change the gauge to read TAS briefly to check that -- don't know if 2020 does that or not. Or, if Pat (OP) specifies the altitude, barometer (altimeter setting) and altitude we could easily calculate that.

 

So that brings up the question for Pat -- are you familiar with the difference between indicated and true airspeed? With the difference in performance and instrument readings that the thinner air of higher altitudes and higher temperatures can cause? In short, all else being equal, the higher the altitude the lower the airspeed instrument will read at a given True airspeed.

I took the DA40 up for a spin today and I think it's just Indicated vs True Airspeed difference. I went to 11,500 feet, temp 1C, barometer 29.97. KIAS=119 KTS, KTAS=142KTS.

Pat, if you look at the bottom of the Airspeed tape you'll see the TAS displayed.

130 knots is 150 MPH -- that might be the difference.

Isn't the issue that the specs are KTAS and the gauge is showing KIAS?

I just had FS2020 do a HUGE 'hiccup'

I was doing the Chagual - current live event landing challenge.

I did not complete it correctly so selected RESTART.

The challenge restarted in the air as expected and the engine was running BUT I could see the prop STATIONARY so I checked the outside view. Not only was the prop stationary but there was a 'growth' on top of the fuselage.

Have a look at the screen shot.

Comments please.

Note I have performed a restart of this challenge BEFORE the latest update and had no problems? Has the latest update introduced a 'bug'?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]225961[/ATTACH]

I’ve had that same black box appear on the Caravan twice, but I’m not sure about the prop. Both times it was well before the last update. As I recall, the flaps wouldn’t operate. It was resolved by restarting the flight.

Now it makes sense that the system is trying to maintain attitude; the way I saw it, it was doing a never ending climb without an altitude bug set. It's the same thing, but your way of stating it makes better sense.

 

In a real plane, the need (or desire) to have an AP controlling only the heading may not be so important because the AP console is always right there in front of the pilot, while for a sim pilot flying in external view it is a real pain to switch screens and operate the necessary buttons and then return to heads up looking out again every time you want to climb over a ridge or descend into a valley.

 

It would be helpful if the sim allowed the FLC and VS buttons to be assigned to external switches, this would eliminate the need to go back and forth between cockpit and external views. Maybe Asobo will do that some day in the future.

 

I find flying in external view to be more realistic than flying from the cockpit. In a real plane (most real planes) the pilot has excellent visibility outside and inside the plane; with the sim, using a monitor, the field of view is severely restricted. Not good.

 

When prices come down, I'll probably get a VR headset which will alleviate some of the problem; also one of these days (or years) Asobo will provide a way to put the instrument panel on a separate screen, that would make things a lot easier too.

Regarding assigning the VS buttons to external switches you can do that. I fly with the Thrustmaster 16000M and I used the 6 buttons on the right of the base to handle turning VS and ALT HOLD on and incrementing VS UP/DOWN and ALT UP/DOWN. It’s great!

Select heading mode (press the Heading button), adjust the heading knob to whatever heading you want then select autopilot. Works for me every time. If you don't want altitude hold make sure that function is set to off.

Note, hovering over the button will tell you what you are about to select, not what is already selected which sounds to me like what is happening.

Uhh, “works for you every time”, on which plane? Can you try it again and let us know how that goes for you when you want to change altitude?

Ah, that button! I had no idea what it did. I will definitely try it in the next session. It looks like just what I was talking about to set the course directly to the destination in the flight plan.

Thanks so much!:)

The only other question is how to switch airports. I decide to change where I am landing, for one reason or another. Like if it is taking longer for a flight than I have time for. I can fly it on manual, and call in with ATC to the airport when close enough. It will display the landing pattern in the air (still using the helper on this). But I don't know what the process would be to enter a new airport on the auto-pilot.

 

Pat

As soon as you hit the Direct To button you’ll have to enter an ID to navigate to (VOR, airport, intersection) even if you just want to go to your original destination. You just use the small and large knobs at the bottom to enter it. The small knob selects the letter and then turn the large knob to the right to move to the next letter. It’s not a quick process unfortunately.

Thanks for all the responses. I have tried some of the advice that I could understand. I can set the heading to be followed by using the Heading knob to dial in a left or right turn and set a course. Which will show on the compass dial displayed as the heading 'bug'. This works fine but turning it one way or the other with the mouse is kind of touchy. Or I can fly off of autopilot to where I want to head, then engage the AP and do a push-down on the heading knob to set the current heading. I didn't know the push down to take the current heading. That will work.

The reference to setting a direct-to heading. Not sure about that one. I don't see a direct-to control. Is that a choice on the soft-tabs on the Garmin screen?

 

Pat

Pat,

The Direct To is the button on the Garmin that looks like a "D" with an arrow through it:

Then you enter the airport ID with the knobs and select Activate:

After activation you'll see that the VFR map shows a new magenta line from your current position to the airport. In this case my original plan started at KWVI:

I hope that helps.

"MSFS's Baron is supposed to have de-icing capability. Does anybody know how to turn it on?"

The Baron's de-ice is the 2nd row of these switches.

The twist rudder on my Thrustmaster T16000 seems to be going out. Over the last few days it’s gotten progressively worse and today I ended up in the weeds on takeoff. :mad: In the sim and in Windows settings I see that it’s vibrating around and not going evenly to the extents. Strangely, in the Windows settings I can’t actually calibrate the stick because I don’t get that option (though I don’t think that would help anyway). All other axes work fine. The fact that I can see the strange movements in the Settings window indicates to me that it’s a physical problem with the rudder in the stick.

Since I like the stick, anybody have preferences for rudder pedals?

Actually, if he's not changed the GPS setting, it's doing almost what you describe, trying to get back to the original course, ("it wants to set course back to the line from the departure to the arrival airport.") but because of his course deviation it's a more aggressive correction.

 

So the OP will need to set a Direct TO course in the GPS at the point where he is, then it will go where he wants. There should actually be a Direct To selection where you select the airport you want. Since I don't have this specific sim I can't give exact directions, though.

Doh! Of course you are correct. I mis-read the original post and thought the AP was sending him back to the departure airport. The Direct-To button will get him from where he is to the arrival airport, with a lot of knob fiddling to type in the ID unfortunately.

I have now got to the point of being reasonably able to fly on the light planes in the standard edition of MSFS, from the Cessna 152 up to the Bonanza. My next challenge is using the autopilot. Many of these planes have the G1000 dashboard so I can use that as an example. I understand pretty well how to set the altitude hold. Use the Alt knob to 'turn' the knob (with the mouse) to an altitude then engage the autopilot and use the VS and set the climb or descend rate using the up or dn buttons.

Setting a heading is another issue. If I want to just follow the line from takeoff to the destination airport using the GPS mode it is easy. Just use the Nav mode and it goes to the heading. However if I have flown somewhere without the auto pilot, to look at a city or go around a mountain or something, then want to use autopilot to go to the destination, I have trouble. IF I engage the AP, it wants to set course back to the line from the departure to the arrival airport. I want to be able to do a direct line from where I am to the destination. I have tried a couple of things and it seems to go in unexpected directions when I engaged the AP.

Any insight on this?

The AP shouldn’t operate like you describe. If you press NAV and then engage the AP it should take you to the magenta line with an approximate intercept of 30 degrees. If you’ve flown in the opposite direction of your destination and then engage the AP it may appear that it’s going back to the original departure. You’ll be able to see what waypoint it’s navigating to in the PFD window.

Well it seems that there maybe not a bug in this tutorials as I have now been able to complete the tutorial without any issues.

For unknown reasons I have found that the trainer some times does not proceed with the next instruction so it appears to me that I have not successfully completed the previous instruction although I cannot understand why. Maybe I just need to keep trying eg when I am told to line up with the center line as sometimes it works and other times it doesn't even though I feel that I am lined up. The Youtube tutorial mentioned before shows that the 152 was far from being lined up with the center line yet the author was able to take off and the instructor then issues the next instruction regardless of the fact that the aircraft was far from being on the center line.

 

Oh well on to the next lesson (actually I will skip the next two as I completed those earlier - jumped ahead).

Glad you got through it JP. There are definitely some weird things in the sim currently.

Keep training!

I found the other day that the Attitudes & Instruments Training Flight training has a bug (also identified in the latest update).

So I 'move on' to the Take-Off & Level Flight tutorial.

 

Firstly I move the 152 onto the runway and stop between the piano keys and the runway number and take off. At around 40 kts the trainer advises -

"We're a bit too far down the runway. Let me move the aircraft back into position" and the tutorial restarts with the 152 positioned slightly further down the runway than the runway number - STRANGE it is further down the runway than when I first started!

I take off and no 'complaints' that "we're too far down the runway".

I restart the entire tutorial and taxi onto runway and position the 152 EXACTLY where the trainer repositioned me earlier. I take off - SAME problem "We're too far down the runway..."

Second problem. When the tutorial starts it shows a diagram with the 'flight path' drawn from take off the climb with 55kts at take off and 75kts during climb.

 

I start again with same problem as above but when repositioned I can take off (which I do at just over 60kts) and then climb at around 88kts (above 75 in the diagram) when I get my 'beloved' trainer tell me -

"Not moving fast enough We will have to abort take off" and the whole session restarts on the ground". Wow I was doing 60 kts at take off more than what the diagram showed (ie 55kts) and was climbing at nearly 90 kts which faster than the diagram shows for the climb speed (ie 75kts).

 

I don't like having to restart for no apparent reason.

 

Is this another BUG or am I doing something wrong?

 

A few months ago I found that creating a manual cache caused FS2020 CTD (now supposedly corrected in the latest release), now two training sessions seem to have bugs.

 

I am loosing patience with FS2020. Are there any training session which work?

 

Why don't 'they' concentrate on fixing bugs rather than introduce new scenery, aircraft?

 

IT seems that this 'bug' goes back to September 2020 yet it is still a bug. Have a look at this report.

 

There is a Youtube video of this tutorial and the trainer 'talks' to the pilot advising him what to do "keep on centre line", "take off at 55" etc etc. I do NOT hear these instructions PLUS in the tutorial the author takes of exactly as I do (but on on the center line" at LESS than 55 and climbs at just over 60kts yet there is no 'reprimand' that we are moving fast enough. I give up!

JP, since you posted this I’ve tried this lesson 3 times without a problem. Because of the altitude my instinct was to hold the brakes while going to full throttle and that worked fine. I tried 2 more time with no brakes but first quickly to full throttle and then a bit slower application of throttle. Both of those worked fine all the way through level flight.

Do you want to try it again with brakes while going to full throttle and see what you get?

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?327313-Insert-MS-FS-Game-Disk

The XBox servers are down.

I asked this question before and the answer was to hit the r-key then press and hold the the control key + or - on the number pad. This did not seem to work. Any other ideas?

The correct answer is to go into Controls and see what you have Rate set to on your keyboard. I believe the default is "r" and the my Increase/Decrease Sim Rate are "=" and "-" . Search by Name for rate and you'll find those 3 keys. You can reset to anything you want.

Not ideal conditions to work on your landings... but glad you survived. :)

You’ve posted many times about having problems coming in high. You probably need to work on the scan for airspeed while you’re watching the runway visually to see if it’s going higher or lower in the windscreen.

Good luck.

Congrats on the first flight. It’s a blast isn’t it.

While I agree that your can’t perfectly transfer operating the throttle, mixture etc from sim to real life, the thing that transfers very well is something you probably didn’t even notice. It’s the instrument scan while trying to maintain level flight, turning, landing etc. In the sim you don’t get the real engine noise, wind noise, feeling of Gs that you get in the plane. This means that in the sim you’ve already developed a good scan of altitude, airspeed, bank.

Congrats again.

What was the update? I assume it was included when I reinstalled my Steam MSFS yesterday evening, or do you have to do something affirmative to download it? I was practicing landings at my usual venue--KWVI. I saw other live players and I heard a lot of ATC chatter about generic traffic, but I didn't see any AI air traffic today either. Before I ran into problems with the sim a several days ago, the taxiways at KWVI were lousy with AI ground traffic. I couldn't dodge the taxiing AI planes; they'd run right through me. All I saw today were AI trucks.

Hi Aptos, the update was Update III and it was Tuesday I believe. The new version of the sim is 1.14.5.0 so you should check to make sure that’s what you have now that you reinstalled.

The AI traffic was magically back today.

I did the update yesterday (Steam) and everything was fine. Today I noticed there is no AI traffic in the air. I still see other Live players, but none of the usual airlines, GA flights etc. I've even looked in the Los Angeles area where there are always airliners.

Under Flight Conditions I've got Multiplayer = Live Players, Air Traffic = Live Traffic.

Under Options Traffic I've got Traffic = Realtime Online.

Under Options Data I've got Live Real World Air Traffic = On.

Anyone else having this problem?

That must have been it. Somehow when I set up the buttons on the CH yoke I was lowering the flaps but the gear also lowered. Got it right now. Next problem is that I can't taxi from water onto land. Gear appears to be lowering but is buried in the ground. IJ lowered the gear well before reaching land. Maybe I am trying to do something it is not supposed to do.

Yea, I don't think you can taxi into or out of the water. Maybe someday...