I used to fly various PT6, PW123 & TPE331 equipped ones.
Correct. That’s why I wrote that you use brakes or reverse to slow down.
On jets there’s no beta range, hence you need to use the brakes to slow down and especially on the A320 you have to monitor the brake temps very carefully during taxiing to avoid overheating the brakes on long taxi routes.
That’s impressive. i couldn’t do that. Without staring at the engine gauges I couldn’t tell if the power levers are e g. half an inch in reverse since there’s no detent/stop before entering the reverse range.
The point I’m trying to make is that as a pilot I don’t care if I’m using only beta or if I’m already in the reverse range. I pull the power levers aft until the plane starts to slow down. The further aft, the quicker the slow down.
Btw. even my old turboprop flight models did have a beta range. It’s apparently an MSFS problem that you can’t do that. Simulating correct prop drag without cheating with invisible spoilers wasn’t a problem either.
I don’t think whether or not you care if you’re in beta or reverse changes the fact that they are still very different operationally. Beyond that, I feel like we’re basically agreeing on everything else, though it feels like you’re wording it as though we don’t(?). Perhaps I’m just misinterpreting your post. Everyone’s experience is different. I’m not a pilot, I’m in maintenance and ops so my experience is different from yours.
I think why it really matters for sim pilots is because with out at least some semblance of a beta range, you are essentially yo-yoing back and forth between flight idle and reverse in a very jarring manner. It is a problem with a lot of MSFS turboprops. Most people want to use their throttles to taxi realistically and not ride the brakes. Having beta range simulated allows for much finer and smoother control, just as it does on real aircraft.
Anyway, I digress. I do remember your FDEs though, and you did work some magic with turboprops. There’s a certain developer who’s name starts with a ‘C’ who’s planes your FDE’s absolutely transformed.
EDIT: You rephrased your question - in an prior post about confusing beta and reverse to which I said, I’m 100% sure I’m not confusing them which I took to mean we were talking about operationally. If you’re asking if I can tell the difference between beta and reverse (not alpha) by listening, then I’d say no, not really. Full reverse is pretty easy to discern but even after having probably hundreds of PT6s taxi up to me, all I can say is that you can tell when they are below the flight idle detent. Although, I’d say you can sometimes hear the engine spool back down coming out of reverse since the turbine lags behind the prop pitch change and fine pitch doesn’t create enough prop noise to cover up the actual turbine sound. But I’ve been around A LOT of these things. Hope that clarifies what I was trying to say.
How are they very different operationally? From a pilots POV reverse is just an even lower blade angle plus higher RPM.
That’s what I don’t understand. E.g. I’m using the toggle reverse command. Toggling between forward idle (don’t e.g. the King Air props move automatically to ground idle on ground?) and reverse idle shoudn’t result in a significant speed reduction, let alone a jarring movement, but I haven’t tried any of the mentioned turboprops in this thread.
On the Dash7 beta range is already active way above flight idle in flight. That’s one of the reason why I asked what the obsession with beta is, since it’s different between airplanes and I’m sure that you can’t tell during flight when the props on the Dash7 are in beta.
I think there is some misinterpretation and things being taken out of context here. Particularly regarding the full reverse thing I mentioned which I was throwing in anecdotally as part of my response but you seemed to misunderstand.
A plane doesn’t OPERATE from a pilot’s POV. It operates mechanically and physically because of the way it was engineered. You can make the argument that the point of a simulator is to replicate the pilot’s POV, e.g. use invisible spoilers for beta range. But you are still simulating beta range, regardless of how you’re making the simulator do it. You are still having to replicate the behavior of the aircraft that gives you the POV you keep talking about.
I’m very happy for you that you’re satisfied with your sim set up and you don’t give a rat’s about proper beta range. I’m not perpetuating this pointless debate any further because you’re not actually making any new points, just asking the same questions in different ways and I don’t know what else to tell you if you don’t know why alpha, beta and reverse are different. I won’t be responding anymore unless someone has some real questions to ask.
Does the Milviz pc-6 have custom engine code? I think the thread was asking for the best simulation of a turboprop engine rather than the best TP aircraft ( which IMO is the Transall, but everyone has their own favourite a/c - I have zero interest in single engined turboprops unless they’re single/twin seater high performance a/c ).
For other participants in this thread; Since the release of MSFS, these ‘beta requests’ ocasionally pop up.
Turns out that in most cases people don’t know what beta really means or does, or where it starts.
Until Asobo comes up with a useable turboprop model, it would be IMO sufficient that if you are using the reverse toggle, or you are tapping F2 once with the throttle at idle, would not cause a rapid speed reduction.
Maybe this is the case with the planes mentioned in this thread, but unfortunately I didn’t get a reply.
IF they do, the lack of beta is a non issue from a flight simulation POV.
If you are ‘technically’ already in reverse, and ITT etc increase by a microscopic amount doesn’t really matter in this case.
The lack of a ‘real’ beta range in MSFS is a very small problem compared to the serious issues the present turboprop model has.
I understand the thread is focused on the engine not the entire plane. My opinion is based on that exactly. PC6 is the best I’ve seen. I have many others but I don’t have Transall to compare.
I have no idea if PC6 has custom engine code. I don’t really care much for it. I like to fly a nicely done plane not read it’s code
PC6 feels well sorted to me regardless of its code.
@kaha300d wrote in a different thread that the BB PC-6 can’t be stopped with the brakes if the condition lever is not at low idle which isn’t even remotely correct.
So this doesn’t sound too promising.
The real one slows fown pretty quick on ground without brakes and the condition lever at high idle.
