Matt_W
1704
Stuck the landing on my second attempt. C172 now available to run group assignments from that airport. (WA96)
Just noticed whoever made that livery put a tail number on the texture itself. Doh.
I’m cross-posting this because I know folks are still searching for a HOTAS!
Spock
1706
Near Bremerton! That does look fun. I might look for jobs around there in FSE. Nice lens flair, by the way. :)
I did get the AP to work in the TBM. I think I messed up something starting cold and dark, because this time I started on the runway, followed the same procedure, and had no problem. Well, except that once the AP put me into a spin. Also, once I was setting up the heading bug on the ground, and I tried using the keyboard shortcut – but then the bug started circling nonstop, and the keyboard stopped responding. Had to use Task Manger to kill the sim. I’ll just use the mouse scroll wheel on the HDG button from now on.
I’m still not grokking the TBM. Partly it’s the power system. How much torque at takeoff? I try not to let it go into the red, but even so I sometimes get a weird drop-off in power as I’m halfway down the runway.
Pedro
1707
Awesome, thanks. Yes, it seems I’m doing it correctly for the most part; I just need to learn patience.
Matt_W
1708
Flying over the Bahamas this morning
Think I might try to earn enough to install an autopilot in my Cessna. I’m almost there.
I found this ferry job at BGGH:
That’s a distance of 1900 miles across Greenland and over Iceland ultimately to Sweden. With a C172. Might be fun, but would take something like 24 hours. And only pays a total of about $10k.
Pedro
1709
Still pootling around central Africa.
Taking off from Ngara Airport (HTNR) in Tanzania:
And points north at sunrise:
BTW - if anyone is having issue with the left engine shutting down shortly after it starts up (at least in the A320), easy fix - make sure the center tank isn’t empty. Haven’t had the left engine shut down since someone suggested that.
Now if I could just figure out how to get the autopilot screen to come back on after it and the LFD goes blank (although the latter can be ‘fixed’ with the brightness knob - doesn’t seem to affect the autopilot screen, tho).
Spock
1711
Pretty screenshots, guys. Keep 'em coming.
I actually did something like this with the first plane I ever bought in FSE. I bought a little Piper Archer that was in Portugal, and I wanted to get it to LAX so I could fly it on PilotEdge, a network like Vatsim that has live ATC at all southwest-US airports. So I flew it up to the UK, probably to Iceland, and most memorably around Greenland, on endless legs that required fuel economy and an empty cargo hold. That was really fun – once. I’m not sure I’d want to do it again.
Oooh, what brightness knob? I do get the dim-PFD bug occasionally, usually just once per flight, before takeoff. It usually fixes itself, but it’s annoying.
Spock
1712
Also, OnAir support granted my request to pass the TBM certification after I explained that my checkride was nuked by a bug. (“OnAir could no longer communicate with your simultaor.”) OnAir says it’s a bug with SimConnect or MSFS, but who knows. Anyway, I’m glad not to have to repeat that checkride, at least not on Stratus, and now I’m more inclined to extend my subscription for a little while at least.
Still playing FSE, though. Might fly into Chicago there today.
Matt_W
1713
One more TBM tip. If you leave the inertial separator on, it reduces the engine performance by about 10%. In real life, it’s a set of levers that causes the air intake to the engine to turn a sharp corner. Any large debris is thrown out of the air stream by inertia, so it keeps stuff out of the engine. Useful on/near the ground, and especially when operating the prop with reverse pitch. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to suck up debris in the sim, so it’s just a drain on the engine.
The POH for the TBM 930 is here. Section 5.8.2 (page 300 of the pdf) has tables showing optimal torque settings for various flight levels and outside air temps. There are 4 sets of charts: climb at 124 KIA and 170 KIA and cruise<FL200 and >FL200. In general, for takeoff and most of your climb, you want torque to be at 100%.
And I found another tip on reddit. On the panel above your head in the cockpit, there’s an AP/TRIM switch. That switch has to be on for the AP to work. Sometimes that panel starts up in weird states. The fuel selector up there will often start in a setting other than AUTO.
Skipper
1714
Matt and Pedro both killing it with the screenshots. Especially those over Africa. That MSFS ad with all the shots there has me wanting to go do some flights around the continent.
Spock, I’ve loved the TBM every time I’ve flown it. It has similar stall speed to mid-level props but has absolutely crazy acceleration, climb and speed as a turboprop. I also love the newer and easier to use avionics, etc. No more knobs for flight plan input if you don’t want that. I’d love to own or fly one in FSE or OnAir. I should rent one a few times to see what it’s like hauling passengers.
It’s to the left of the LFD - right by the bend between the console and the window. There’s two of them - and I think the label says something about it being a light brightness or something, but it seems to work
Skipper
1716
Someone on Discord encouraged trying out Little Navmap, as it is now compatible with MSFS 2020.
No clue what I’m doing with it yet, however.
vyshka
1717
Little Navmap seems pretty nice. It reminds me a bit of the Aerosoft program I used to use with FSX, I think that was called Flightsim Commander.
Spock
1718
For those who like to start at the ramp but don’t want a 2-mile taxi: you can choose exactly where you want to spawn by zooming into the airfield when you select it in MSFS’s “welcome” menu. This is saving me a lot of time. Though of course ATC may send you the wrong way anyway.
Thanks for the brightness tip, @ChiTownBluesFan. And thanks for the TBM tips, @Skipper and @Matt_W. I especially appreciate the link to the POH, Matt!
Yep, that’s why I couldn’t get AP to work on my first try. I just had um skipped that tick on the checklist, thinking “why do I need to turn on the AP while parked?” Well, you need to ENABLE the AP (and trim) while parked, heh.
One nice thing about OnAir – I was able to rent a TBM on day 1 and fly it a while. Soon it’s going to need maintenance, and I imagine I’ll have to return it to the system owner for that, but for now it’s helping a lot. It sure takes getting used to. I get very nervous trying to comply with its 85 knot approach speed.
Here I am flying around the Big Island of Hawai’i today. I’ve played the two golf courses below many times in real life. :)
Skipper
1719
Nice shot, man. Looks gorgeous that high up.
I’ve been leaving live weather on, which has good parts and bad parts. The good is SO MUCH MORE fun and interesting flights. The bad is that to use my FSE plane in the evenings I’m making lots of hops at night. And some airports are just not well lit at all, especially the passenger hops around hubs.
I’m thinking when I do purchase another I need to place it geographically elsewhere. Maybe a nice hub in Asia somewhere?
Also @Tumburu I see you’ve been busy flying. I’ll put some more cash in the Quarter To Three group. I think we’re set for 90% (meaning you get 90%, the group gets 10%.) But if you fly for the group, you’re gas and fees are paid for by the group. Plus, you’re an officer, you can transfer cash out if your low.
I’ve been flying for Dymond since Friday and seeing how they handle things as a much larger group with tons of owned FBOs. Chatted with the boss a bit as well to understand the complexity and money involved. Some notes:
- They have 80% pay. You’re free to use the planes they have but unless I’m doing something wrong, you still rent them. You can, however, fly your own plane also.
- Fuel/fees are paid for by the group, it’s really open to fly whatever you want and whenever you want.
- They have mostly switched to MSFS planes: C172, C208B, B-58, KA-350, CJ4. They do have some older King Airs and Beechcraft 1900’s.
- The owner enjoys running hauls on the Citation X, as he can pick up well paying cargo jobs and make upwards of 10-20K per run.
- FBOs are outrageously expensive at the large level. The group has gotten offers well over 25 million for just the Nashville FBO.
I’ve also had no problem being part of our group and theirs as well and I can pick who I run flights for, or for myself, each time I set up a flight. Not bad at all.
Spock
1720
I do this too. It’s one reason I lean toward doing FSE flights in areas west of me – so I can fly at “day” in the evening. Hawaii is perfect for this, but as beautiful as Hawaii is, there are only so many airports there.
OnAir, for what it’s worth, automatically changes the time of day in your sim depending on what global time setting you choose. I still seem to get most features of “live” weather – clouds and rain and such – but I control whether the sun is up or not. I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to extend my sub, but I do like this feature.
vyshka
1721
I have a chunk of cash I can move over to the group. I’ve been getting my sea legs back before jumping in to FSE again.
Edit: I just moved $50k over.
Skipper
1722
No need to, to be honest. The group really has few if any expenditures. However, the next lease-to-own on my next aircraft will be leased to the group, in which case I’ll just put money in as needed. The 90% if you run things for the group is voluntary. I’ve made everyone in the group an officer, there is a log of everything there if needed. Feel free to move in/out as needed.
Here is the sad reality of FSE, though. Green jobs (users, not computer generated) generally pay more. Further, many FBOs will offer fuel and maintenance discounts to encourage other FBO owners to point jobs between them. So if you pick most big hubs in the US, you’ll see favorable jobs to do, fuel costs, and maintenance costs.
Contrast that to Asia, where if I pick any of the top 15 actual WORLD largest hubs over there, they have low amounts of green jobs, and only a few have favorable fuel rates.
I’m trying not to be miserly or min/max it, but that’s … depressing.
As a quick comparison, look at KATL. Probably over 200 green jobs there just waiting, 4.05 on 100LL fuel and 3.80 on JetA
Now we look at the biggest hub in the world at ZBAA (Beijing.) Maybe 20 green jobs total, 4.45 100LL and 4.09 JetA. Plus, the hops around there ALSO have a low amount of user jobs.
I just need to find a bit of a half-way between the two, while also a favorable timezone.
Matt_W
1723
I think there are hubs that have been set up by active FBOs in several places not the U.S. I run into them every once in awhile: a relative small airport in the middle of Brazil with 30 well-paying green jobs.
I’d love to have a hub in SE Asia, maybe Guangzhou or something so you can reach all those ASEAN countries and China with relative ease, and even do longer runs over to the Himalayas. Might be fun to have So Pacific as well, a hub in the Philippines or Indonesia.
I’m gonna do a long Africa run tonight, then run some group jobs in Washington.
