ANSWERED RV-4 Thoughts / Questions

[ryanbatc]

My very first impression was, ouch, tough on fps.  But as I get a little more time with it I can really see the TLC you put into the avionics and the plane in general.  The avionics are probably the most in-depth I've seen (maybe on par with F1 G1000 or better!).  The operation isn't super intuitive on the glass but it's not too bad once I learned it.  The clickspots are real small especially for the knob manipulation.  Handling is decent.  Rudder is super touchy on my end but I have a lot of GA payware so I'm used to the vast differences in handling between planes.

 

And hey, you modeled circuit breakers (at least some as far as I can tell)!!! cool!

 

I've got some questions about the plane operation in general (that I couldn't really find in the manual, or I did but need clarification)

 

1) Is there a way to sync HDG or basically any CDI that is active?  For the CDI, say enter Direct to a fix, I'd like to sync the CDI to the DTK for the fix.  Or if it's a VOR, I'd like to sync direct to the station.  Is this possible?

 

2) Wind.  I see the arrow on the PFD, but I don't see any direction information or velocity.  Is that modeled?  I can get it off the RXP unit just fine but it looks like it should be on the PFD and it's missing.

 

3) Starter key.  Mine seems to be missing.  I couldn't actually start the engine without using Ctrl+E.

 

4) EFIS mode using the AutoPilot...  I'm confused even after reading the manual a few times.  Simple mode I understand fine.  What are the steps to have the autopilot fly an ILS?  Let's say I want to start out at 2000 ft.  Can I go from simple mode using HDG and ALT hold to EFIS mode easily?  And how do I do that without disconnecting autopilot?

 

5) Peak CHT detection values are really tough to read with the cylinder engine view.  In the bar graph format it's fine...

 

6) Two displays on the main PFD: a) magnetometer align b ) AGL: NO GPS - what are these and do I need to do something about this?  I'm using RXP 430W option.

 

7) glass manipulator buttons impossible to see at night.  knob is okay but all could be better lit by secondary dimmers,

[Jared Charalambous]

1) I use the bearing indicator. It automatically points to the fix and is non adjustable.

2) There is not a lot of connect ability with the RXP. The Wind functions are set up to display only with the default orbxGNS430 unit but I will look into improving the interface with RXP

3) The ignition switch is in the lower right hand corner. It was my preference to have the ignition key not visible because I find it easier to identify it's position.

4) Unfortunately you can't use simple mode and then change to EFIS mode without disconnecting momentarily. You don't need to though. If you boot into EFIS mode and use the heading and altitude bugs on the EFIS to set up your approach. then change the cdi to nav mode (with the CRS set to the runway heading) and intercept below glideslope the Autopilot will automatically switch to approach mode and fly the ILS. (Things can stop this from working however. If you have set your minimum altitude too high the autopilot will not allow the approach or if you intercept the glideslope in a decent above the glideslope the autopilot will also not allow the approach.)

5) Nothing I can do about that but I might make them a slightly brighter orange for future releases.

6)Again the NO GPS flag is caused by RXP connectability. Ill try to improve that. The other flag is always present so long as the Magnetometer is in alignment. The RW unit has two magnetometers which have to be aligned correctly. if they are not it defaults to the main magnetometer but displays Magnetometer Missaligned!!! instead.

[ryanbatc]

Thanks for that.

 

I'm still not getting the ILS operation on AP.  Here's my screenshot.  I'm in EFIS AP mode but instead of NAV the mode is set to BUG (I assume heading bug).  I've got an ILS freq tuned in and GNS430W is set to VLOC.  How do I get the AP to NAV mode?  And then it should auto arm to follow glide slope right?  I think I read that in the manual.  On the EFIS screen none of these options do anything (LAT ARM/HLD VERT ARM/HLD).  FD ON/OFF does work.  The secondary bearing is pointing to KCLM via the GPS.

 

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r43/ryanbatc/ILShowto.jpg~original

 

edit:  I found it.  RNAV is usually a word for FMS/INS/GPS.  Needing to activate RNAV for ILS tracking is a little odd to me.  But if that's what the real unit says I can't really dispute it.  They should have used the term APR or APCH mode.

[Jared Charalambous]

Are you referring to setting Rnav up on the RXP gns430?

[AlVo]

Hello, Jared.

Few things spotted my end so far:

1. The scale doesn't move/show correct numbers on the analog altimeter.

2. RXP GPS doesn't seem to show any details on the map except for land contours despite settings set to show full details.

3. Behaviour in turbulence sometimes seems unrealistic - the plane gets off course in all directions sharply (had same with Baytower RV some(!) repaints).

FSS0247657

[Jared Charalambous]

Please don't hijack the thread, Ill answer these here but in future please don't

 

1) Need you to be more specific, There are three ways an analogue altimeter is displayed in this aircraft, 1.The Steam or round independent gauge located on the left of the panel, 2. The ticker tapes in the EFIS pages of the AF3500 or 3.The VFR page of the AF3500.

 

2) Are you talking about the GPS it's self or the Display in the AF3500?

 

3)The entire RV range are very light aircraft. Turbulent air throws them around a lot. The RV-4 is one of the lightest in their range.

[KelB]

Removed

 

See below

 

[KelB]

Hi

 

Sorry about the previous half completed post - don't know what happened.

 

I have been looking forward to this plane coming out for some time.

 

Firstly it is a beautiful rendition and is great to fly - however the frame rates are shocking on my system making it almost unuseable.

 

I have a Windows 7 64 bit PC running an I7 2600 with 8GB of RAM and a GTX660 GPU.

 

I tried a test this morning using OrbX England and Orbx Goodwood airfield.

 

I tried in sequence an number of different aircraft of different complexities and noted the FPS in the following conditions:

1) cold & dark at runway 32

2) Engine running with strobe and landing lights ready to go on runway 32

3)During right hand circuit back to runway 32

4)After landing.

 

I used the A2A C172R, the Default 172, Ant's Sierra and Corenado's CT206

 

The A2A and Cornenado planes being more complex gave lower rates than the other two simpler models as you would expect.

 

1) Gave me around 25-27 fps on  the complex and 32-32fps on the simple

2) Gave me around 20-23 on the complex and 28-31 on the simple

3) Gave me around 17-24 on the complex and 22-25 on the simple

4) Gav me around the same as 1

 

On the Vans I got

1) 25-27 (Fine - like the other complex aircraft)

2)12-15 (most of the drop seemed to be when the EFIS became active)

3) 9-12 (7-9 during final approch)

4) 12-25 (returned to 25_27 when returned to power off state)

 

I experimented with the different display modes and found that with the simplest display I could get 12-15 FPS in flight but this still dropped to 9-12 on final approach.

 

I checked the CPU and GPU loadings and it was definately CPU load rather than GPU.

 

Is there anything I can do to improve the frame rates to match those of the other complex GA aircraft

 

Regards

 

Kelvin

 

I found t

 

[Jared Charalambous]

Unfortunately those more complex aircraft you mentioned are not a strait comparison. None have a large PFD. A closer comparison would be the Carenado cirrus sr22 gtsx turbo.

 

I will be working on improving FPS in future patches but the truth is I cannot work miracles. Unfortunately some of the eye candy will likely be toned down with control panel options.

[KelB]

Thanks for your quick Response.

 

I look forward to any improvements you can make.

 

It would be great if there was an option to select a more basic avionics set.

 

Here is a link to a really nice RV4 owned by a member of the Microlighting Club of which I am a member - something like this would be excellent.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e2xawu5w0qf9jwq/arYrCnsVcw

 

Regards

 

Kelvin

[ryanbatc]

Are you referring to setting Rnav up on the RXP gns430?

 

Not really.  I'm referring to the fact that I have to set RNAV enabled on the EFIS in order to fly an ILS on autopilot.  In my pic above I tuned an ILS but the AP mode went to BUG.  I had to change the FD mode to RNAV enabled so the AP mode would change to NAV.

[Jared Charalambous]

I'll investigate after work tonight. As I'm sure you can appreciate recalling complex code that I wrote 6 months ago is not easy off the top of my head

[AlVo]

...on the FPS - getting best with EFIS being on the EMS page, with external FPS limiter set to 30 and FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.15 (with lower value on my system have slow texture loading).

[Jared Charalambous]

Hi Ryan, Sorry I didn't get to this for a couple of days, I need to know where you had to select Rnav. The CDI menu?

 

If so In this case Rnav refers to Refrence Navigation device. This could mean VOR or ILS. I've double checked with the real world unit that this is what it displays in that menu. The CDI selection is directly linked to the autopilot's source selection. If a source is present in GPS or Rnav(Nav) then it selects that source. If not it defaults to bugs.

[ryanbatc]

Yeah I figured the real one was like that.  It's just odd to use RNAV in relation with an ILS approach.  I'll get over it hehe.

[Jared Charalambous]

Yeah I know it's a little confusing but the CDI selection really has nothing to do with a GPS RNAV approach. The CDI selection is just selecting the source of information not the type of approach.

[Relax]

A few days the engine of the RV-4 was working.

 

Now when I load the aircarft, the engine stops after some seconds. I can't restart the engine again. Not even with Control + E.

 

Kindly advise.

[jpreou]

The engine requires maintenance I believe, via the maintenance panel that you can bring up while on the ground. Shitf-1 or something like that then click the relevant button on the control panel. Perhaps it is that if you have done a lot of flying or perhaps not treated the engine kindly?

[Relax]

Thank you Jeff!   Bingo! I definitely need to care better. I will do so. Promised.

 

 

[jpreou]

cool, huh? I should probably check my own; haven't been entirely kind to it myself

[Relax]

Does the RV-4 support the shared cockpit mode for multiplayer flying?

 

I would like to check this out with somebody.