Caravan 208B - lowering throttle, propellor goes crazy

[TheRampantGoat]

You’re in the Beta range in the first image, the position of the bolt on the power lever is the actual position and you can see in the screenshot that you’re clearly below the Idle line and into the Beta

Now, the throttle axis positioning in the game is certainly problematic because it should allow you to stop before the beta range, not continue into it at the 0% position, but that’s a different problem for a different thread.

[gbeans65]

How do I throttle down then? When I have tried doing this, as soon as a raise above the beta range my airspeed climbs even with the propeller lever all the way back and without any descending nor ascending? Am I missing something/not understanding fully?

Edit: Landing is also extremely difficult when 1. you can deploy thrust reversers midair, and 2. trying to modulate the throttle even the slightest bit makes my too fast or nosedive into the ground. So I have lost a ton of reputation because of this.

[TheRampantGoat]

In my experience it’s all about the balance between the Throttle and Prop levers - I’d recommend practicing in Free Flight if you’re losing a lot of rep in career. Just set it up in calm weather somewhere and do touch and go’s. I’d really recommend this for any new plane, spend at least a couple of hours in familiarization before jumping in on career, personally I just finished up doing this in the ES30, stoked to try it out in career later! But, a few things that might help you on the 208:

• You need to give yourself a nice long approach in order to give yourself time to slow down and stabilize - ignore the path given by the game (the blue squares) because it often gives super tight and short approaches with no chance of slowing down and stabilizing first (this has little-to-no impact on rep)
  • It’s a powerful plane, the engine has a lot of get-up-and-go so you need to respect that and give yourself plenty of time to slow it down. This is a lot different from flying say a 172, because a 208 really wants to be in the air, whereas a 172 is a fight to get it up and keep it there - and it doesn’t have speedbrakes like you have on an airliner, so you don’t have any mechanical method of slowing down, it’s all down to your energy management
• Try out different combinations of throttle and prop levers as you approach on some of your touch and go’s, you’ll get a better sense of how the plane reacts
  • A higher prop speed will actually help you reduce speed, because the blade AOA will be shallower, essentially creating a ‘wall’ in the wind at a certain point
• Read the POH I linked earlier in the thread, it has power settings and stats for all different phases of flight
  • As the old saying goes “When in doubt, RTFM” …or something like that

[Jiminaizer]

Looking at the bolt to judge if I’m in flight idle or beta, depends on the angle of the camera. Look at the next picture. Am I at the lowest point of flight idle, or in beta?

[TheRampantGoat]

It’ll be designed to be viewed from the angle of the pilot - so getting down low and looking from different angles isn’t going to help - it’s best just to keep the bolt fully above the white line when you’re looking down at it. If you want to tempt fate you can split the white line but I just don’t see the point when you can easily keep it above that without having any problems.

If you’re having trouble keeping it out of beta with a physical TQ you could put a marker like some masking tape at the Idle/Beta point so you don’t have to use the virtual cockpit to look at it each time

[TGAPMerlin]

I have just tested the issue and described my results in that other thread over here: Cessna 208B Prop Speed at Idle - #47 by TGAPMerlin

[Jiminaizer]

[SwellSundew4587]

Cessna 208B Prop Speed at Idle

Great showcase of what the problem looks like, this got me looking at what I also believe to be the culprit. I’ll reply here whit my findings since the other thread has been resolved. My experience after some testing is that the throttle axis (whatever binding you’re using, including “Throttle N Cut”) in this plane is defined incorrectly and entering the beta range when it should in fact be flight idle. The tool tip, and likely the “Flight Idle” definition is misleading in the sense that the t…

Have a look at this comment, I do refer to there being a wide range where the tooltip is described as flight idle even though it is not

[TGAPMerlin]

There is also a detent when you move the lever with mouse, so that stop position would be the real flight idle position. But the prop still spins up even when in that position.

[Jiminaizer]

I have the same experience. Forget about using the Bravo throttle quad, there is no difference.