Alabeo Cessna 441 V1.3

Anyone else out there flying this plane with the newest version, 1.3?

 

I installed it and now the autopilot has a close to nearly flat out impossible time in keeping the plane on course. Version 1.3 handles on the ground better than 1.2 did, but the autopilot is just horrific in the slightest amount of turbulence. And when I say slightest, I mean the Cessna 172 flies in very light bumps 10 times better by comparison, no joke.

 

The autopilot goes back and forth in 80 to 90 degree bank angles to keep the plane on course, but at level of extreme bank angles the plane obviously looses altitude so fast that my integrated GTN 750 begins to give me terrain warnings over flat land, not a mountain or hill for 1,000nm, because I go from FL140 to FL020 in about one minute or less. The bank angles inputted by the autopilot now are so severe that at times the needle on the VSI reaches its limit and the plane goes from 6,000+ fpm -6,000+ fpm in the matter of 30 seconds.

 

To fly version 1.3, I have no choice but to turn off realism settings in FSX otherwise the stress of the flight because of the autopilot on the plane would damage the airframe and when that happens in FSX, FSX "crashes" a plane in flight.

 

Anybody else out there have these problems?

I use Active Sky 2016 and had Active Sky 2016 before with the 441's version 1.2, but I had no problems with the autopilot with version 1.2 on their 441.

Nothing has been changed concerning the AP between 1.2 and 1.3 AFAIK.

Suggest to delete the 441 completely and re-download and re-install the plane.

 

I did so because Alabeo support said to do the same, but the same problems with the autopilot still occur. I e-mailed Alabeo support and their response was, "Thank you for your valuable feedback.

We'll consider if we can include it as a modification on a future patch we might release for the aircraft."

Without any weather (CAVOK and no winds) the 441 flies just fine on autopilot, but with any kind of turbulence with winds above 20 knots or so the autopilot inputs bank angles that are extreme overkill even in a light chop with FSX default weather engine.

 

I agree that Alabeo's response is a useless reply. They could have at least asked what kind of weather engine I use, or what the conditions of the flights are, so that they can begin to figure out that they might need to fix something if it is weather engine related. Just my opinion.

Interesting results that you reported.

 

I will try to fly the 441 over the weekend and see how it handles one more time with the ap on by re-examining navigation course hold mode and heading hold mode regarding excessive over correction.

 

If the yd is on in my case, then yaw should not be nice and tight hence the name yaw damper. If my problems re-occur, then it does not look like they properly programmed how a yd should operate.

I did not word my post properly. The yd only dampens yaw after a force (multi-engine has an engine out, wind, etc.) disrupts the current yaw "position" but it does not catch and react instantaneously. However, if I'm flying in very light winds where FSX has no gusts but steady winds (Shift + z) and the 441 turns to stay on course and my nose is all over the place diagonally speaking, and I take a quick look outside to inspect the tail with the yd turned on, why is the rudder in the 441, and only in the 441 while on AP, going back and forth? In light winds with no gusts, only small corrections are necessary.

 

It seems like the 441's AP is injecting PIO all of the time in version 1.3. Even while flying straight and level just to remain on course.

I uninstalled version 1.2 as Alabeo instructed. Then Alabeo sent me a direct download link of version 1.3 of which is installed.

I do not have Accufeel. Why do I get a response from Alabeo, the people I paid, that reads yet again, "Greetings,

 

Thank you for your valuable feedback.

We'll consider if we can include it as a modification on a future patch we might release for the aircraft.

 

Regards,

 

Alabeo."

 

Wouldn't a developer that you paid try to be more helpful rather than receiving what seems like an automated or copy & paste response?

I looked at the value of the yd's gain in the cfg file, and it is 0. So I do not know why it handles the way that it does regarding yaw.

 

Alabeo should have asked a question like this because any other developer that I am a customer of, even in circumstances where I was the only person with a problem, they still take the time by having me look at many different things until a solution presents itself or up to where there is no solution.

 

One distinct problem in a different case was when a very well known developer of an airplane ran out of ideas to my problem, but they had me reach out to another developer whose product might have been causing the problem. Between the 3 of us a solution was found and the airplane developer added the solution to their knowledge base, and as a result many quiet customers ended up thanking the developer by saying, "I never posted the problem because it seemed like I was the only guy with problems like this. Thank you for posting it!".

 

Alabeo did not even ask me to look into the cfg file as you did. In my 20 years of this hobby, I have never had a lack of developer assistance like I have received from Alabeo, and I am not just talking about the yd problem.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

I guess I will only fly the Alabeo 441 when the weather is CAVOK with but a tiny bit of wind.

As the rudder is moving without pilot input and YD gain = 0 then there's definitely something going on which has nothing to do with the 441.

Alabeo/Carenado are producing planes extremely fast and I don't think that they would even have the capability to answer all the customer problems for their fast growing number of planes. Furthermore they have never been exactly famous for their customer support...

 

I have read in other forums of Alabeo's so called "customer support". Not good reviews.

 

I want to know why it has some switches that when you click one, another switch also changes its position. Weird.

 

Anyway, too many add-on airplanes in my hangar to fly and this is the only airplane with these types of control problems.