WestWind Airlines

VPCargo:

Find the [autopilot] section and replace the part at the bottom with this (make a backup copy first!!), be careful not to overwrite the very last line in the autopilot section which says yaw_damper_gain=1 ....

yaw_damper_gain=1?  Weired, mine says: yaw_damper_gain=0.000000, does that need changing??

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Test Pilot

50 Hours x6
Green Monster x2
P001
October 2008 Screenshot Comp Winner

VATID: 1040117
Controller: UK Heathrow & Essex Region

James, go ahead and change it.  Both the FS9 and FSX aircraft files that I have have it set to 1.

Mike, that sounds more promising, not sure why your nose gear went on you, maybe it's a bit sensitive (POSKY's v3 747's can be that way too if you're not careful), I think we may be able to adjust that.

I think we may have licked the glideslope issue.  Now as to the throttle response, I'll have to ponder that for a little while.  As far as the painting issue, I think we are using high resolution textures right now which is part of the problem.  I get it in FS9 too, if flying in a high density area like London or NY, and with this airplane I get it every time I switch to the exterior view.  This too we should be able to minimize if not solve completely (mileage will vary depending on individuals system specs....).

We'll move on to high altitude airports and such a little later (Quito, Ecuador is a favorite of mine when it comes to high altitude work, La Paz is also a good one).

I'll probably be taking a little break from this next week, it's my wedding anniversary on the 1st, and then I'll be out of town with questionable internet access for about 10 days.....).

Next hurdle we need to work on is the vc issue, I may have Scott jump in here to offer his opinion on that too.....

 

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EHAM-YSSY B772LR

A couple more things.

The autopilot default vertical speed is set to 800 fpm. I think that should be more like 1500. I think this may be contributing to the overspeed problem. I may play with that value. 

I may play around with the VC if I get some time. No promises. I suspect it is going to add to my framerate problem.

For some reason, I have a lot of trouble with collapsing nose gears even while taxiing. Ken had to stiffen up the nose gears a LOT to keep it from happening in the G550. I had that trouble a lot on the B757-200 also. Some airports are better than others. I have toyed with reinstalling FSX but have not yet wanted to go to that much trouble. I have also thought about running some diagnostic routines on it to see if they fix it. I saw something on flightsim.com the other day that I thought might help. But alas, I didn't have time to mess with it.

As far as taking time off, that is fine with me. P002 is running me ragged. Since I decided to do it in order of the airports listed in the file, I get a lot of really long flights. I think I am up to leg 65 out of about 200. I am also doing all the optional airports.

Cheers and enjoy your trip. Happy Anniversary. BTW, if you ever get up to NW Arkansas, let me know and I will buy you a cup of coffee. That goes for any of you guys.

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WWA1702 Senior Command Captain +3
RWP SEL Instrument Rating (almost)
WW Test Pilot
Monster Driver

If yall can get this worked out I will love you forever and buy you all a cup of coffee!!!!!  Next to the 747 the 777 is a close favorite and I really appreciate yall working on this for the Westwind hangar!!!! Cant wait till you have it done so we can watch her take to the skies!!!!!

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Kevin Stanley
WW-2018
Hub Manager
Miami International

Flight Test Report
Palma de Malorca - Local
FSX

Autothrottle.

• The autothrottle is responding correctly when I switch from N1 HOLD to SPEED HOLD. It is just not responding quickly enough. The engines spin up past 100% N1 for takeoff. As soon as I hit speed hold, they begin responding but they stay near the 100% mark for quite a while. They are back down around 60% as the airframe is overstressed.
• I changed the autopilot default vertical speed from 800 fpm to 1500 fpm and again to 1800 fpm. This helped considerably but on the last takeoff, I still had the stick shaker going as she maxed out on the speed and started back toward 220 kts.

Glide slope tracking.

• I did several more approaches. I hit the GS a little hot at 200 kts and she captured with a full needle refection then recovery. She slowed to 250 kts in plenty of time to land and was stable and nearly perfect over the threshold and on landing. I did not experience any more nose gear problems. I am going to write that one up to either a fluke or pilot error until I see it again.

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WWA1702 Senior Command Captain +3
RWP SEL Instrument Rating (almost)
WW Test Pilot
Monster Driver

Mike, we may need to adjust the speed/rate at which the autothrottles work (I'll have to look and see where that is changed as I'm not on my own machine right now).  I typically don't engage the autothrottles till I am off the ground, I've had to many instances of rolling down the runway for takeoff and the darn autothrottles start reducing my power, and then running out of runway......

EDIT:

Ok we need to play with the value in the autopilot section of the aircraft.cfg

max_throttle_rate=

In my copy of the fde it is set to 0.03, now several POSKY airplanes I have are set there and I don't have autothrottle issues.  The MS default 777 in FS9 is set to 0.1, as are several other aircraft.

I am ok with a default vertical speed of 1800, 800 seems way to low (the autopilots in FS don't work quite properly anyway when it comes to how vs mode is supposed to work in conjunction with the autothrottles and speed hold.........)

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EHAM-YSSY B772LR

VPCargo:

Mike, we may need to adjust the speed/rate at which the autothrottles work (I'll have to look and see where that is changed as I'm not on my own machine right now).  I typically don't engage the autothrottles till I am off the ground, I've had to many instances of rolling down the runway for takeoff and the darn autothrottles start reducing my power, and then running out of runway......

EDIT:

Ok we need to play with the value in the autopilot section of the aircraft.cfg

max_throttle_rate=

In my copy of the fde it is set to 0.03, now several POSKY airplanes I have are set there and I don't have autothrottle issues.  The MS default 777 in FS9 is set to 0.1, as are several other aircraft.

I am ok with a default vertical speed of 1800, 800 seems way to low (the autopilots in FS don't work quite properly anyway when it comes to how vs mode is supposed to work in conjunction with the autothrottles and speed hold.........)

I will play around with that setting. I knew there was a setting to adjust, but I couldn't find it.

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WWA1702 Senior Command Captain +3
RWP SEL Instrument Rating (almost)
WW Test Pilot
Monster Driver

Thanks to Kim Stolt for pointing me at this, and thanks to Project OpenSky for *making* it, and thanks to some of the people on the forum for figuring out a few of the issues with FSX...

Anyway, here's my report.

1. I haven't flown it yet.
2. Project OpenSky, as usual, refuses to support FSX for the virtual cockpit.  Why, I don't know.  FSX has a much more capable VC handling system than FS9 ever did.  If i were making aircraft, I wouldn't bother making a VC for FS9 anyway since VCs in FS9 are almost completely and totally unusable (see my previous post about the Captain Sim 727 in FS9 vs in FSX (using the FS9 version in FSX)).  so, the moderator (opensky) is quoted as saying, "We never tested the Virtual Cockpit in FSX, so we WILL NOT PROVIDE SUPPORT for the virtual cockpit if you try to run it in FSX... Some users got it to work, while others didn't".

3.  I got it to work.

Caveats:

1. There are THREE instances of the PFD open by default.  There are switches to change this behavior (in case you wanted, say, an EICAS instead of 3 PFDs? :) ) and these switches work.
2. The FMS is not implemented (no big surprise)

Other than that, I'm impressed that they offer both DXT and 32-bit BMP textures - I will probably package the FSX bird with the DXT textures for the VC to make it more accessible to more people (32-bit textures require a higher end video card).  There is no reason you could not separately download the 32-bit textures and drop them in if you wanted to, though.

* The day AND night textures work in the VC.  The plane itself looks good both day and night as well.

I will take it on a test flight later, and assuming it goes well, I will begin painting this, unless Kim or someone else is already painting it for FS9, in which case I will not duplicate their work since exterior textures DO seem to be portable between the sims.

Once I package this all up, it will include all the necessary tweaks and modifications to make everything work correctly for FSX out-of-the-box, so our captains will not have to edit configs or go forum-hunting for solutions (hopefully!).

NOTES:

We are using the 777-200LR with the large rear cargo door model, with GE turbofan engines.

<RANT>
Note to Project OpenSky - FSX was released in October 2006.  It's now *2 years later* and you people STILL aren't wanting to acknowledge that FSX exists? seriously?  Given the fact that it took me 20 minutes to make it work in FSX and the fact that all the King's Horses and all the King's Men simply couldn't be bothered to do so, is somewhat amazing to me.  I know they're not getting paid for this, but .. seriously.. 20 minutes.  I'll volunteer to test things in FSX for them if they're that short handed that they "don't have time".  And again, why even *bother* with an FS9 VC in the first place.. the gauge update rate in FS9's VCs is too slow to make it useful...

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when FS11 is released.  I'm pretty sure the system requirements aren't going to go DOWN, so.. I wonder if people will continue to stay with FS9?
</RANT>

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Scott M. Stone
WWA1712 - Cat-III - Director of Aircraft
VATSIM 1018857 - C1 Controller - KZSE
Private Pilot - ASEL + Complex + IFR (almost)

Hm, I seem to have duplicated this thread.. might want to move my post into this thread if you like.  Anyway, on the posky forums there's a post about making the autopilot "more responsive":

[autopilot]
autopilot_available= 1
flight_director_available= 1
default_vertical_speed= 800.000
autothrottle_available= 1
autothrottle_arming_required= 1
autothrottle_takeoff_ga= 1
autothrottle_max_rpm= 110.000
pitch_takeoff_ga= 7.000
use_no_default_pitch = 1 // 0 = Default to current pitch mode, 1 = No default pitch mode.
use_no_default_bank = 1 // 0 = Default to Wing Leveler mode, 1 = No default bank mode.
default_pitch_mode=0
default_bank_mode=0
max_pitch=10.000000
max_pitch_acceleration=1.000000
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt=2.000000
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt=0.300000
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt_breakpoint= 7000.000000
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt_breakpoint=24000.000000
max_bank=30.000000
max_bank_acceleration=1.200000
max_bank_velocity=2.000000
max_throttle_rate=0.1850000
nav_proportional_control=9.000000
nav_integrator_control=0.250000
nav_derivative_control=0.000000
nav_integrator_boundary=2.500000
nav_derivative_boundary=0.000000
gs_proportional_control=9.520000
gs_integrator_control=0.260000
gs_derivative_control=0.000000
gs_integrator_boundary=0.700000
gs_derivative_boundary=0.000000
yaw_damper_gain=1.000000

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=============
Scott M. Stone
WWA1712 - Cat-III - Director of Aircraft
VATSIM 1018857 - C1 Controller - KZSE
Private Pilot - ASEL + Complex + IFR (almost)

Scott,

AFAIK there is no paint kit for this yet (I haven't checked today yet).  Don't worry about painting it, I've got the itch to paint this one and I haven't done one in a while so I'll handle that part, and then you can move the textures over to FSX and package the fsx version.......

I don't know that they don't acknowledge the existence of FSX, more like ignore it, although they have made FSX specific models of their 737ng series, unfortunately the guy that was making the vc for the 737 left POSKY and took the vc with him.......

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EHAM-YSSY B772LR

Flight Test Report.
LEPA - Local
No wx.
FSX

Overspeed Issue, Taxi issue

max_throttle_rate=0.1850000 

This value from Scott's post seems to work well. I went over the 250 kt limit but just a bit. Also, it helps to leave the flaps deployed until you reach your desired speed. The drag helps you slow down faster. I used flaps 10 for takeoffs. I tested it near Max landing weight and at MTOW. Both seemed to work well. Adusting the throttles helped the taxi problem as well. It needs more testing, but it looks promising.

Autopilot.

Regarding the rest of the auopilot data from Scott's post, I would not change it from what we have tested. It is as near perfect as I can imagine. I have been thinking about trying the same setting on the G550 which is bit loose on the localizer intercept. 

MTOW takeoff

These settings produce a very robust takeoff even when fully loaded. It does not use near the entire RWY.

 

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WWA1702 Senior Command Captain +3
RWP SEL Instrument Rating (almost)
WW Test Pilot
Monster Driver

Mike Gibbs:

Autopilot.

Regarding the rest of the auopilot data from Scott's post, I would not change it from what we have tested. It is as near perfect as I can imagine. I have been thinking about trying the same setting on the G550 which is bit loose on the localizer intercept. 

Yeah I was having glideslope issues with several airplanes in the fleet, and so I started thinking which one did a really nice job.  I went and looked at the autopilot settings for nav and g/s and copied them over.  The ones I posted are pretty good, not perfect but pretty darn close......

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EHAM-YSSY B772LR

Flight Test Report
Cargo Flight
Heathrow - Frankfurt
FL 350
FSX

The airplane handled nicely in all flight modes. I think once we have a good set of checklists and procedures for her, she is going to be pretty good. I was geven a go-around by RC ATC and requested a short final. I hand flew the approach and she handled a lot better after the changes we have made.

The taxi still needs some tweeking. I almost ran over the ground handlers. I think maybe stiffening up the brakes will take care of that. The throttle part seems to be a lot better.

It was a very satisfactory flight.

[EDIT] Except for the slow paint jobl I really hope we can fix that. Neither the 757-200 or the G550 have that problem. I understand we are working on it, so no need to reply. I just want to keep it as an important issue.

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WWA1702 Senior Command Captain +3
RWP SEL Instrument Rating (almost)
WW Test Pilot
Monster Driver

Mike, are you flying it in FSX or FS9 (it's early and my brain is foggy still)?

 

Issues so far:

Range - sounds like we'll have close to what Boeing says the real airplane will have

Nav/Glideslope tracking - fixed

autothrottles - sounds like its fixed

brakes - in progress

nose gear collapse - a one off event unless it resurfaces......

texture loading - in progress, awaiting paint kit to be released, hopefully going to dxt textures will solve that issue

checklists etc. - this will be a tough one unless POSKY publishes something, or we can find it out there on the web.

Virtual Cockpit - waiting for a report from Scott, but I think we'll be fsx compatible with it

FSX compatibility - pending, I think we'll be ok here too........

Question to be answered:

How are the frame rates while flying the 777 (both from interior and exterior views)?

 

Once we get this thing painted, I'll delve into the Boeing data and make sure we have the proper weights, fuel capacity etc.......

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EHAM-YSSY B772LR

I am flyging in FSX pretty much exclusively these days so yes FSX. I will include that in the reports from now on.

Framerates are about 15 fps (my target) from the internal view and about 4 from the external view. This seems about normal to me. I have horrible framerate problems in FSX expecially in high scenery areas.

Checklists. If they don't come out with something soon, I can whip one out in pretty short order. I might just do it anyway.

 

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WWA1702 Senior Command Captain +3
RWP SEL Instrument Rating (almost)
WW Test Pilot
Monster Driver