D0S Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 As a follow up to my New Toy post on Friday, I took my new Carenado 340 up on a second more extensive test flight along the mountains of New Zealand's South Island.The route was WB - NS - ALADA - BELEE - MAMUS - QN, flown at FL200 to see how the turbocharged IO520's would perform. The pre dawn departure was intentional, to see what sort of interesting colours FSX could conjure up as the sun rose from behind the Southern Alps during the cruise.Before I post the screen caps, a few points of interest for those considering the 340 as their next purchase:The Cessna 300 series have notoriously overcomplicated fuel systems, with the fuel pumps delivering more fuel to the engines than they require, and then returning the leftovers that didn't make it to the manifold back to the main tank (regardless of whether you are running off the mains or aux tank). Therefore it is recommended to run the aircraft on mains for 60 mins from takeoff (or 90mins in the 310), before selecting the auxiliarys, otherwise (with full tanks) the returned fuel would get sent overboard due to lack of space in the already full main wingtips, and be an unnecessary waste of endurance and $$$!This is a little tricky to do with the Carenado model, as the only means I could find to change tank selection was a left mouse click on the central floor tank selector. Scrolling and right clicking wasn't an option, so when changing from aux's back to mains, you are forced to cycle through to 'fuel off' on each side before being able to select back to the main tank- which coincides with an instantaneous engine outage. The fuel tank quantity indicator on the upper right hand side of the main panel didn't seem to read correctly either. A two position switch above it's gauge face allows the pilot to select either mains or aux's, with adjoining orange lights illuminating when the aux's are selected in real life. In the sim, the lights turn on when the mains are selected, although the quantity displayed is actually the aux's. Just two labels in the VC that have been stuck the wrong way around by Carenado, but confusing if you weren't familier with the system beforehand. In real world 300 series that I've flown, these tank selectors automatically change from mains to aux's when aux is chosen by the fuel selector, although I'm unsure if this is an after market modification or not. The Carenado 340 doesn't do this and could catch the unaware out!Having said all this, I absolutely love the external model and VC interior. I'll let the pics do the talking, but proportion wise, I think it's a very appealing looking aircraft. Apologies for the repetition of some of the angles below, but Carenado have always been good at setting up those arty presaved camera angles in the spot view!...And then FSX crashed. I was about 50 miles out of Queenstown when ATC put me on vectors for the 23 ILS (ZQN doesn't have an ILS, and there were no other approaches available for selection- so not sure where this came from. Anyone know how to download some RNAV approaches for the sim?). About 40 miles out, ATC suddenly cancelled my IFR flight plan without any prompting from my end. I decided to attempt a visual approach, and was within 30 miles of the airport, cycling through views to snap screenshots when the sound stopped and a few seconds later, the program froze. An Appcrash Stackhash error was what caused it according to the debug screen- something I've never encountered before. I'd made a flight from Wanaka to Queenstown in FSX over the weekend with a similar load on my GPU and CPU with no problems at all. Quite disappointed I didn't get to land the aircraft and see if my fuel burn calculations had been accurate or not! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twsimfan Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Very nice set of shots. I wasn't having much luck with either the C340 or the V35B Bonanza in P3Dv2 until I tried them with "HDR Lighting". I don't know if that is a Lockheed-Martin expression or if it is a DX11 thing but without it turned on the V35B had all the 3D panel instruments looking like a poor frozen image... the C340 was a bit better but the GNS430s and the radar screen were showing up as glossy black glass surfaces with no detail at all plus one of the gauges on the main panel was frozen like all the gauges in the V35B. With the HDR stuff turned on in the P3D options menu all of that works although it is a bit dark... dark but usable. I have just bought those two aircraft along with a number of other Carenado & Alabeo planes in the last few weeks for use with P3D. Other than the V35B & C340 all the others have been flawless. Anyway thanks for the pretty pictures and I hope that crash isn't a sign of things to come. If I tried to do a long flight from 2W3 Swanson in FSX it would always give me some sort of memory error and crash after 15 to 20 minutes... I learned to do shorter flights from there. Maybe your problem is the same sort of deal? Best of luck to you, Tom Wunder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallard Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Very nice pics - and I'll check if I can run my 340 as lean as you do the next time around Re. the fuel tanks - I guess you've tried the mouse wheel as a selector? I'm not sure how I did it, but I did not have to cycle through the selection in one direction only. There is a way to toggle the switches, just can't remember offhand right now how it was done... Cheers Mallard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Emms Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Fine shots these. cheers Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruudmeij Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Nice set of shots. Cheers, Ruud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antonvs Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Very nice set. Good to see another fine example of a classic twin in the virtual skies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockStarofRust Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Awesome set Andy! My favorite is the second to the last shot! I guess it would behoove me to read a manual every once in awhile! Happy skies, Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D0S Posted August 5, 2014 Author Share Posted August 5, 2014 Anyway thanks for the pretty pictures and I hope that crash isn't a sign of things to come. If I tried to do a long flight from 2W3 Swanson in FSX it would always give me some sort of memory error and crash after 15 to 20 minutes... I learned to do shorter flights from there. Maybe your problem is the same sort of deal? Thanks Tom, all was fine a computer reboot and test flight later, my 2011 PC must just be getting grumpy in her old age! Very nice pics - and I'll check if I can run my 340 as lean as you do the next time around Re. the fuel tanks - I guess you've tried the mouse wheel as a selector? I'm not sure how I did it, but I did not have to cycle through the selection in one direction only. There is a way to toggle the switches, just can't remember offhand right now how it was done... Cheers Mallard Ah yes, I'd been playing around with the mixture settings to see how high an IAS I could get when snapping that panel shot. Obviously a far more sensible 75% setting on the fuel flow gauge is recommended usually! After the above mentioned reboot, I was able to change the fuel selection with a mouse scroll oddly enough. Although scrolling up/down doesn't necciserly go clockwise/anticlockwise like you'd expect. I did another shorter flight to test fuel burn and was happy to see Carenado correctly modelled an increase in quantity in the mains after running on Aux's! Thanks for your kind other comments too guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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