This plane used to be one of my favorites. Flew it last night for the first time with the new avionics. It looks really pretty. For some reason a screwed up my flight plan while trying to select an ILS approach in the sky. Not sure if it was me with a fat finger or some kind of bug.
But then on approach the model felt more like a Chinese Spy Balloon rather than a CJ4. Its pretty sad because that cockpit sure looks good now.
In WT CJ4, I would hear a landing 500-feet callout I no longer hear in AAU1. Is that callout in real CJ4s or not? I actually like the big bird jets gradual callouts like 100 - 50 - 40 - 30 - 20 - 10 to touch down. But again, is there a real world CJ4 landing callout?
Two questions:
Iāve flown around 100 point-to-point flights in the CJ4 across the US, then all the way down around South America, back over the US and Canada, over Alaska and into Asia with the goal of flying to Australia. It was my favorite plane. Had to take a month off from MSFS, and coming back to this latest update is a real drag and will be the end of flying the CJ4 until they get things cleaned up.
I had to drop sensitivity to -40% just to get the yoke feeling close to what it was before. Are they only testing these updates with an Xbox controller or something? And how did they completely miss baro reset functionality? I think that bothers me more than anything else, because now you get to have it blinking at you for almost the whole flight even if Standard is set manually. In addition, we lost some sounds, buttons, and all of the cabin views, and AP seems to be wonky.
Iād call this a downdate rather than an updateā¦
The CJ4 does not have an auto-throttle, so it will not fly a selected airspeed. You must be in control of the throttle at all times to achieve the speed and climb/descent rates you want.
Is it? I flew yesterday and didnāt notice any baro reset issues. Maybe I just didnāt notice?
The Devs have explained repeatedly here and in their Discord the reasons for many of the changes and the simple fact that the CJ4 - even with the mod, was not true-to-life. Most of the changes can be āworked aroundā. I have the sounds back (personal mod), good paper checklists available and I now have Navigraph charts on my phone, which makes up for not having them in the cockpit.
Pitch axis is definitely more sensitive, and like you Iāve dialed the reactivity right down to 50% and landings now require a different technique explained well here:
Flaps 30 are pretty nuts but this can be anticipated (although IMO it needs tuned some).
The baro will flash if it is not set to standard above 18000ft and vice versa by default. Thatās because MSFS only has that as the one trans alt & level globally. But I believe you can manually specify the trans alt in the VNAV pref. if flying online.
Basically, Itās a new plane with a ton of high-fidelity avionics (split PFD &MFD, PT, holds, turn anticipation and VNAV) more typical of payware airliners. It needs to be treated as a new plane
Maybe I shouldāve been more clear, I meant my FLC settings - the speeds I pick there switch to defaults after a time
Hmm, interesting. Iāll have to pay more attention to that the next time I fly.
What I typically experience is every time I select FLC, the CJ4 will always capture the current speed and then pitch to maintain it. I then would manually dial in a new speed and FLC would adjust pitch accordingly. This all assumes that Iāve set the throttle to something āreasonableā based on what Iām doing. FLC will stay engaged at that speed and pitch until it hits the target altitude, when the plane will level off and then either accelerate or decelerate depending on where my throttle is. I always need to re-adjust throttle to reset my speed after altitude capture.
I have never noticed FLC engaging at one of the default VNAV settings. Maybe Iām missing a procedure step somewhere, as it only captures the current speed every time I engage it. Iāve always assumed thatās how it works in the CJ4.
This is probably the piece I was missing in terms of my viewpoints above. The comms I saw had me thinking they essentially integrated the WorkingTitle CJ4 mod into the sim, but I learned pretty quickly how that isnāt the case. I just wish there was a way for the mod to coexist (even if the team stopped updating it) so we could fall back on that version until the kinks were worked out of Asoboās, but I also get how software development works, and Iām sure the new version made WTās mod unusable.
Do you have VNAV engaged (will indicate VFLC)? It may set the VFLC speed to what is in VNAV PREF if VFLC mode is indicated.
Otherwise, it will synch to the current IAS when you engage FLC (despite what you may have dialed in beforehand. The usual procedure is to set FLC after flaps up and above 1000AGL & over V2+10 on the climb-out. Iād only use VNAV on the climb if there were some restrictions on the SID.
Hats off to the MSFS developers with the latest update 1.30.12.0. CJ4 is flying nicely, and much more stable. Hope it stays this way.
Flew the CJ4 from KPDK to KSAV and everything worked nicely, including the takeoff, descent along with the the approach.
Just a point of clarification, the new CJ4 avionics and flight model are also by us at Working Title. Itās just that they were completely rebuilt from the ground up to an even higher accuracy and fidelity level not using any code from the mod.
It may set the VFLC speed to what is in VNAV PREF if VFLC mode is indicated.
See, if it did that I wouldnāt have this problem - but whether in FLC mode where it turns to Mach at some very low number, or in VFLC where no matter what it changes to 240/.64 around FL280, whatever I type into VNAV PERF CLB does not matter
My usual flow is:
Then at 4) I either keep watch over my Mach number as Iād rather not stall at .51 at high altitudes (FLC) or surrender to my fate since nothing will stop the computer from forcing 240/.64 on me (VFLC)
You shouldnāt need to maintain V2+10 - thatās a minimum for gear and flap retraction and to hold it would mean coming out of TO power very early in the take-off phase. Usual take-off procedure (not considering noise abetment):
For the climb-out, I would
The main thing is to leave the throttles in climb and let FADEC manage them. Much care required if you have an ATC restriction though and this is when I might consider VFLC for the climb.
240/0.64 is the Cessna recommended speed, but the Citation Jet Pilots, Owner-Pilot Association suggest slightly different values in their 2019 inflight guide (you can find copies on the internet). Cessna say it should take 29 minutes to reach FL450.
240/0.64 is the official climb schedule from the manufacturer and what all operators Iām aware of use as well.
Gotcha; while weāre on a similar topic, what are the recommended settings for long-range cruise? I sort of experimented out that around 91% seems to be the sweet spot at FL400 and above, but Iāve also found an article which gives a much lower number Iāve yet to test, but suggests a similar 1 kg/nm result:
the M0.586 cruise yielded a 339kt true airspeed. (ā¦) long-range cruise was about 100kt slower, but total fuel flow had dropped to 344kg/h
Which one would you say is more viable?
Edit: itā¦ seems to be almost my 91% thrust? It definitely gives me a higher TAS (around 360) and a much higher Mach (.63-.64) though, wonder where that came from
Anybody else had a CTD in the CJ4 since yesterdayās update ? Iāve just had two in a row at exactly the same spot (at top of climb Enroute from KMBL-KLGA). And I hardly ever experience CTDs.
Could just be a terrain glitchā¦
[Edit: almost certainly a 3rd party freeware airport caused it]
It was reported, but it seems there wasnāt a workaround posted - Iāve now twice in short succession ran into a problem where I cannot pick an arrival procedure - if I try to pick ARR in the DEP/ARR INDEX, I get a āKey not activeā message. It also seems to randomly lock me out of departures in the same fashion, but to those I get through the first press of the DEP ARR button - it doesnāt work for arrivals.
I know this part of the guide wasnāt updated yet, but is it an error on my side? Happened on my SBFZ-GVNP (loaded eventually very close to the destination in a very scuffed fashion, with missing procedures both STAR and approach) and the current WIEE-WPDL flight (still in the air atm, but I donāt believe itāll change in the next hour - if it does, Iāll update this)
