Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'c90'.
Found 5 results
-
Hello all... I've never flown turboprops or jets (for real or in flight simulators) and I'm having a hard time setting a (Carenado) King Air C90 for approach (FS2004, but my question is really about "real" flying). Basically, I can't get the thing to slow down... I ease the throttle on level flight (cruising at around 170 KIAS), and start trimming for descent at 160 KIAS, aiming for 1500 fpm descent as per a C90 performance reference manual that I got on the internet (PDF). The manual has a descent chart (fuel/time/distance) defaulting to 169 KIAS / 1500 fpm. Yet, no matter how much I pull back the throttle, at that descent rate the plane speed goes over 180 KIAS (overspeed at certain altitudes). Moreover, if I ease the throttle too much, I start getting "low oil pressure" warnings, so I'm at a loss at how to maintain 169 KIAS at a 1500 fpm descent rate without damaging the engine (?)... I've tried fiddling with the propellers' RPM (2000 - 1700), to no avail... Any advice about the proper procedure to slow down turboprops (or the C90 in particular) for approach greatly appreciated...! P.S. In another forum (reddit) someone suggested getting "flaps down". I was going to write an annoyed reply saying that if I was trying to slow down from cruise speed, the speed obviously would be much higher than Vfe... Yet, before I replied, I wisely googled up what was the Vfe for the C90, and apparently it is 184 KIAS (!!) for flaps set to "approach"... So, are flaps down set to "approach" the way to slow down the C90 to its reported 169 KIAS descent speed and keep 1500 fpm...? Thanks in advance for your advise and help on this!
-
C90 GTX King AirPublisher: CarenadoReview Author: Wycliffe BarrettSuggested Price: $37.95/images/fsc/wbicons/store-buy-now-button.png /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-07.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-22.jpgWycliffe Barrett here of X-Plane Dedicated. Here in the UK we are in lockdown due to the Coronavirus, and so Ithought now would be an ideal time to share my thoughts with you on arecent aircraft I purchased from the FlightSim.Com Store; that beingthe Carenado C90 King Air GTX for X-Plane 11. We all know that Carenado makes some of the best X-Plane aircraftout there, so I was eager to test out the C90. The video itself isjust shy of ten minutes, so not that long, but long enough in whichfor me to share my thoughts and impressions with you. /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-11.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-12.jpgNow...probably the first thing you will notice about the video(especially if you subscribe to my channel), is that I need to shave!Well...call it a new look ("The Lockdown Look"), or simplylaziness...I'll leave it up to you! I hope you enjoy the video, and if you haven't subscribed to mychannel, please do. Stay safe in these trying times! Wycliffe Youtube Channel Purchase Carenado - C90 King Air GTX for X-Plane 11 Screen Shots /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-05.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-06.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-01.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-08.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-09.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-10.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-03.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-04.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-13.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-14.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-15.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-16.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-17.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-18.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-19.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-20.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-23.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-02.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-21.jpg /images/reviews/caregtx/t/carenado-king-air-c90-24.jpgPurchase Carenado - C90 King Air GTX for X-Plane 11
-
First flights with Beechcraft C90 GTX King Air for XP11. Aircraft by Carenado. I hope you like this video ;)
-
/images/notams/notams20/care0227/care0227.jpgSpecial FeaturesFull interior and exterior PBR3D interior and exterior with MANY detailsRain effect support (dynamic drops movements)Customized FMOD soundsCarenado Proline 21RealityXP GTN750 support (with 3D panel display support)FeaturesFull VR compatibleSpecially designed engine dynamics for XP11Flight physics optimized for XP11 standardsPhysically Based Rendering materials and textures throughoutPBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industriesRealistic behavior compared to the real airplaneRealistic weight and balanceTested by several pilots for maximum accuracyIncluded In The Package5 HD liveries1 HD blank textureC90 GTX Normal Procedures PDFC90 GTX Emergency Procedures PDFC90 GTX Performance tables PDFC90 GTX Limitations PDFCarenado Proline21 PDFCarenado RTU PDFFlight Guidance Systems PDFRecommended Settings XPLANE 11 PDFPurchase Carenado - C90 King Air GTX For X-Plane 11
-
C90B King AirPublisher: CarenadoReview Author: Rohan NairSuggested Price: $34.95/images/fsc/wbicons/store-buy-now-button.pngBeechcraft. A name that has taken firmroots in the realm of aviation. Born in 1932 by the will of WalterBeech and Olive Ann Beech as the brand of the Beech AircraftCorporation, Beechcraft went on to become a prolific Americanmanufacturer of aircraft. Single engine light aircraft, twin-engineturboprops, business jets, and military trainers, they've made themall. The company eventually came under the umbrella of Raytheon, thenlater on Hawker Beechcraft until finally being acquired by Textron, anAmerican conglomerate, as part of a bankruptcy sale. Nothing, however,has fazed Beechcraft from continuing to manufacture a myriad ofaircraft. The popular piston powered twin engine Baron and the twinturboprop King Air 350 found their way into the Microsoft FlightSimulator franchise too as a pair of default aircraft. /images/reviews/carec90b/t/car_c90_2.jpgA lineage of iconic products from Beechcraft are their King Airs: afamily of utility twin engine turboprops. Production started in 1964and continues to this day. The original King Air family has twovariants: the 90 and 100 series. Later developments, known as theSuper King Airs for a time, came in two characteristic T-tailedvariants: the 200 and 300 series. King Airs have found a place inevery corner of the globe. As a result of the efforts of Carenado, theKing Air C90B now has a place in the world of X-Plane 11 too. The C90B is one of the smaller 90 series variants of the originalKing Air family. Over previous variants, the C90B features airframeimprovements, four blade propellers, propellor synchrophasing, and anElectronic Flight Instrumentation System (EFIS). The C90B sports apair of Pratt & Whitney PT6A-21 turboprop engines. A total of 456C90Bs were manufactured until production ended in 2005. C90Bs arestill in active service across the globe. They have served aspassenger aircraft, cargo aircraft, flying ambulances and even servedfor military purposes. Carenado first offered the C90B for X-Plane 9 and 10 sometime in2013. Later, on an HD series rendition was released for X-Plane 11 andthat is what this review is about. A 328 MB download from the FS Pilot Shop that will set you back USD$34.95 is one way to get this add-on onto your system. Before youdecide to do so, bear in mind that Carenado believes you'll need a 3.5GHz i5-6600K or better, 16-24 GB of RAM and a DX12 capable graphicscard with 4 GB or more of VRAM that parallels or overtakes a GTX 1070to get the best of their product. Fear not for these aren't theminimum system requirements. They're the recommended systemrequirements. If your system can run X-Plane 11, you can probably runthe C90 too. In theory, at least. One of the great features Carenado'sC90 shares with X-Plane is that it works on any Windows OS from XP to10, Mac OS 10.10 and above and Linux operating systems too. I did myreview on a 3.6 GHz 4th generation i7 with 16 GB of RAM and a 4 GB GTX960M running a 64 bit Windows 10 OS with X-Plane 11.11r2. /images/reviews/carec90b/t/car_c90_1.jpgWhat's the usual way of dealing with a payware add-on once you havepurchased and downloaded it? Unzip, run the installer and then fire upthe sim. Right? That's not what you'll do with this add-on for X-Planethough. You'll have to drag and drop a folder into X-Plane 11'sAircraft directory. Do this and the Carenado C90B in six liveriesshall await you in X-Plane 11. If you're a pedantic, a real aviator,or a professional textbook style flight simmer, then you know theimportance of good documentation for an add-on. Head into theobviously named folder inside the C90B's aircraft directory and youfolks will find what you need. Maybe. Why so? You'll learn why in abit. For now, let's roll out the C90 from the hangar to admire itsvisuals. Carenado's C90B is visually impressive inside and outside. Crisp HDtextures, clear gauges, a good number of animations and effects makethis add on a treat for the eyes. There is a 3D virtual cockpit and avirtual cabin too that both come with a good number ofanimations. Some of animations that caught my eyes were the sun shadesin the cockpit, the adjustable overhead lights in the cockpit and thecabin, the pens in the pen holders on the glareshield that rattlearound when starting the engines, polarizable windows in the cabin,and engine cowlings that can be opened to reveal a detailedrepresentation of the internal engine components. Most of the switches in the realistic, detailed and high definitionvirtual cockpit are operable. I did find that the click spots for someof the switches can have you fumbling to find them. Night lighting isgreat inside and out. There is one light that doesn't work andthat is the avionics panel light. This creates quite an issue ifyou're scrambling to find the switch in order to listen to COM Radio 2on a dark night. Make use of that indirect instrument light now! /images/reviews/carec90b/t/car_c90_3.jpgCarenado have done a good job in replicating the cockpit of the realC90B. Having clear, readable gauges with a reasonable field of view isimportant and that is indeed the case with this add-on. The aircraftexterior is equally well done bar one anomaly: the tires seem to bepartially sunk into the ground! Carenado have made good use ofPhysically Based Rendering (PBR) to achieve visual fidelity. PBR is away of rendering that allows for more accurate modeling of light flowsand consequently results in a more photorealistic rendering. With all that said, does the C90B impact your frame rates inX-Plane 11? Yes, it does. And the impact is significant on a now lessthan mediocre system like mine. Starting up in a cold and dark state,I was glad to see a constant 30 FPS in the virtual cockpit. My elationwas short lived. For once I fired up the engines and avionics, I foundmyself taxiing out after settling for 18 to 20 FPS in the virtualcockpit. And this was all without anti-aliasing in the default Seattlearea with sliders on high except number of objects which was on mediumand reflections which was on minimal. Looks do matter and there is no doubt that Carenado's C90B doeswell in that department. But this is a virtual aircraft and in orderfor you to enjoy its looks, it has to be flyable with respect tosystems and flight dynamics. The real C90B has an EFIS and Carenadohave fairly accurately represented it in their rendition. Most of thesystems found in the real aircraft have been simulated. That enablesaccurate simulation of engine operation (almost), pressurizationcontrol, navigation, icing, failures and automation too. /images/reviews/carec90b/t/car_c90_4.jpgInterestingly, Carenado have gone with the Garmin GNS 430 for theGPS system paired with a Multi-Function Display from Avidyne. The MFDcan do some interesting things like showing you weather overlays andtraffic. Although the MFD also has a selectable option to enable theTerrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS), it doesn't seem to workat all! Neither can it view a flight plan that has been programmedinto the GPS. Some of the switches in the cockpit can be hard to reach withoutmoving around your viewpoint a lot. A work-around is to use a pluginlike X-Camera. If you don't, Carenado does provide a panel to help youget around the cockpit. This panel is brought up by clicking the 'C'near the lower left side of your screen. You can adjust field of viewand volume on the fly using this panel too. Would you like a 2D popupof the hard to reach autopilot panel? Click 'A' in the same area. Wantto control doors, engine cowlings, wheel chocks and the like? Clickthe 'O' in the same area. From an instrumentation perspective, theC90B by Carenado is functionally realistic enough to enjoy flightsin. If you can work it right. Read on. Not all of us like aircraft that have a learning curve steeper thanwhat we can handle on our own. Good documentation brings down theincline angle in that respect. Carenado provides documentation for thispurpose but I can say right away they could definitely work on it tomake things easier for novices and convenient for veterans. While theC90B is not a very complex aircraft, the myriad of controls in thecockpit can be disconcerting to deal with for a novice or someone whois not familiar with the cockpits and operational philosophy of KingAirs. This is a situation where one can really feel the lack of anillustrative flight tutorial. If the EFIS dazzles you, fear not asthere is a manual that brings about plenty of clarity about it and theautopilot. You'll also get details about important speeds, normal andemergency procedures, cruise performance tables apart from informationabout terrain awareness annunciators and the recommended settings forX-Plane 11. Joystick settings too. More about flight dynamics lateron. /images/reviews/carec90b/t/car_c90_5.jpgBefore that, I should say that the normal procedures aren't allthat intuitive with a lot of the phrase 'As Required' being statedthroughout the document. To my dismay, I did find some potentialerrors too. I would have liked to see detailed documentation about theaircraft's systems. In particular about engine operation guidelinesand pressurization system management. Documentation is one area wherethere is definitely good scope for improvement in order to help outthose not familiar with King Airs quickly get up to speed with thisaircraft and to satisfy pedantics. I haven't spoken about the lack ofdetailed documentation concerning accurate fuel planning because thatis missing from a vast majority of add-ons out there and quite franklyI have stopped expecting to find it. Despite all that, the C90B behaves well and as expected in flightand on the ground. Be sure to use a stability augmentation setting of25% (Carenado's recommendation) or as you like it for all controlsurface axes to avoid the dreaded "squirrelly" behavior of light andfast aircraft in X-Plane 11. I'm pretty sure I heard some of yougasp. "Stability augmentation!? That's cheating!", you said. Yes,there is no stability augmentation in real life. Instead of that,there's force feedback controls with near infinite resolution andpoints of contact, kinesthetic cues and visual cues (a lot betterones). Most of us fly without force feedback control systems in ourflight simulators. Unfortunately, since the days of the MicrosoftSidewinder, we haven't seen reasonably affordable force feedbackcontrol systems. If you don't have one, there's really no shame inflying with some stability augmentation in X-Plane 11 as it helps makeup for the lack of force feedback controls and the seat-of-the-pantsfeeling. The C90B was easy to fly with my Saitek X-55 and Saitekrudder pedals. /images/reviews/carec90b/t/car_c90_6.jpgCarenado have got fuel burn and engine performance simulatedright. The numbers concerning fuel burn and engine power in cruise fora given set of conditions in the sim matched what was there in thecruise performance tables. This aircraft is a joy to fly manually on short runs. If you preferGeorge/Otto to handle things then you should know that the autopilotis versatile enough to take care of things right after takeoff. But ifyou start from a cold and dark state, there are high chances that theautopilot is going take the plane on an unexpected heading in anylateral navigation mode. Even if you don't start from a cold and darkstate, you'll notice the plane start to progressively drift away fromthe course you intend it to fly using the autopilot. The cause is dueto gyro drift being enabled in versions of X-Plane starting from somerelease of 11.10 onwards. X-Plane 11 randomizes the amount by whichthe directional gyro is off the correct heading when an aircraft isloaded in the cold and dark state. The autopilot of the C90"internally" refers to the "internal" vacuum gyro which, like in reallife, is susceptible to drift and periodically needs to be realignedto the magnetic north. The HSI in the C90 always shows the correctheading though since it uses a slaved gyro system that constantlycorrects heading. Most of us do know that turboprop engines operate in a ratherpeculiar manner. The Microsoft Flight Simulator platform, by default,doesn't simulate the caveats of turboprop engine behaviorwell. Laminar Research's X-Plane 11 fares somewhat better in thatrespect but let's face it, they haven't got it perfect. On aircraftlike the King Air, there's a range of throttle lever operation calledthe beta range which extends from flight idle to maximum reverse. On aKing Air, simply dragging the throttles all the way back into reverseisn't going to work. Bring the throttles to flight idle, lift them anddrag them into the first part of beta range called the "ground fine"area before further taking them further back and doing the same liftand drag to put the throttles into the reverse thrust zone. /images/reviews/carec90b/t/car_c90_7.jpgYou'll probably use reverse thrust only when landing on short orwet runways but ground fine is used almost all the time whentaxiing. The reason being that the propellers generate a very lowamount of torque and consequently lower propulsion when the throttlesare in the ground fine zone which allows for greater control over taxispeed. Try taxiing with the throttles in flight idle and you'll seethe aircraft scurrying way and yourself standing on the brakes to stopthe aircraft from careening into something that will certainly resultin a call to the insurance company. X-Plane aircraft can generate reverse thrust only when thethrottles are at the 0% position and a button is pushed to activatereverse thrust. This means that Carenado had to make the 0% positionas the ground fine position and not flight idle since reverse thrustin not generated in ground fine mode. This does mean you canunintentionally pull the engines into ground fine while in flight! Idon't know if there is a workaround for this issue that developers canimplement. Hence, I shall give the benefit of the doubt to Carenadoand say that the way they have modeled throttle operation is fineconsidering the limitations of the simulation platform. What's left to cover? Audio. Carenado's C90B has realisticturboprop sounds but I feel it doesn't quite get to the mark ofabsolute realism. I mean to say it doesn't exactly sound like a realC90B but it gets close enough. You won't be too disappointed. Exceptwhen you engage reverse thrust when you'll be subjected to a brashchange of noise. The simulation does leverage upon X-Plane 11'simproved sound system modelling. As an example, if you open thecockpit window then you'll hear the deafening buzz of the turbopropengines. How does Carenado's C90B compare to the default C90B in X-Plane 11?Carenado's rendition is visually superior, handles and sounds a lotbetter than the default model. Functionality wise in terms of systemsand engine operation, Carenado's rendition takes the lead insimulation fidelity. It can't be said be said that the default C90B isvery far behind. It's just that Carenado have gone the extra mile forvisuals, flight dynamics and functional fidelity. /images/reviews/carec90b/t/car_c90_8.jpgAnd now it's time for the conclusion. I really want you to decidefor yourself, based on everything you've read so far, if you want tobuy Carenado's C90B or not. Nevertheless, I shall offer my twocents. For a product that costs half the price of the sim itself, I doexpect a certain degree of perfectionism. In no way do I mean absoluteperfection but issues like the tires sinking into the ground, theavionics panel light that doesn't work, the Avidyne MFD missing someimportant features it is capable of and the documentation should bereally be looked into. A patch/update from Carenado to address theseissues would make this great product perfect. If you like King Airs and you're looking for a C90B add-on thatoffers visual, systems and functional fidelity with plenty of eyecandy then go ahead and invest in this product. You won't bedisappointed. If you have any queries, suggestions, constructivecriticism then please feel free to reach out to me via e-mail. Clearskies and happy landings to you, virtual aviator. /images/notams/notams17/care0907.jpgRohan Nair rohannair10@yahoo.co.in Purchase Carenado - C90 King Air for X-Plane 11
