This is such a sad story. A fantastic aircraft that was the pick of the bunch that has slowly been eroded not just by the passage of time, but so many updates that seem in many cases to make things worse rather than better.
I havent flown the 414 for a long, long time now as after one of the innumerable updates of 18 months or so ago and maybe even 2 years left me with a partially functioning aircraft. I only returned to this thread recently in the hope of finding a good, stable benchmark aircraft but on reading these recent entries may yet end up leaving it in the corner of my hangar, possibly never to fly again. The emergence of the bulletproof Baron 58P and the arrival of the Duke just around the corner demonstrates that in all of the intervening time, others have caught up and the early promise of the 414 is yet to be realised.
Well, you should not make assumptions without trying for yourself. There have been very few issues reported with the majority boiling down to the use of community mods that have not been updated.
I lost some gauge functionality which spoiled things a lot, but as my PC is remotely sited away from the house, I simply dont have time to muck around downloading every update at Snails pace. Actually I dont have the patience either when there are other options now available. The thing that pains me and I am genuinely conflicted on this one, is that what should have been seen as a tremendous exercise in incremental improvement has for me and I suspect many others, backfired to some extent and if it hadnt, I would have been poling around since day 1 on the Lear as well.
I love the 414 as it just hit that vibe, the sweet spot occupied for so long in FSX by the Realair Duke. A real performance twin that could and would do anything. There was no competition at that time within MSFS. It may be that its moment has passed.
I am pleased that you guys have popped up to fly the flag for it and I send you both my regards.
Really no clue what you are talking about. If you did not fly it for a long time, then how can you say it is not functional. I have kept pace with all the updates and I still have a wonderfully functioning aicrraft that is keeping up with the best. And it is great to be able to to a preflight walk-around.
I hadn’t flown this bird for a while, but I took it for a cross-country flight tonight and had an absolute blast! Everything worked perfectly and I remembered how much I loved the sounds, especially.
It just might replace the C310 as my go-to GA twin.
I posted about my C414 v.4.4.6 installation creating problems where altitude could only be cahnged by 1000’s and heading bug only moved in 10 degree increments. I noticed the directory structure of the 4.4.6 download is different from earlier versions in that there are now separate CUSTOM and INFO subfolders. The Custom subfolder contains a hardware.xml file that results in the attached error. Could this be my problem? Apparently a typo/syntax error at the beginning of the hardware.xml file?
What variant are you in and how are you changing altitude and heading? Is this happening on a stock aircraft or a repaint? Mouse only or bindings? Nobody else is reporting this issue. I have no hardware.xml file in the Custom folder for the 414 and there is no Info folder there either.
I suggest you remove all repaints and any 414 community mods you my have installed, then go go to Add Remove Programs within Windows and uninstall the 414, then go into your community folder and make sure that there is no flysimware-cessna-414aw folder, if there is delete it. Then reinstall the 414.
If you happen to be referring to the Custom and Info folders within the .zip file they are for informational purposes only…it now appears to me that is what you are referring to. They have nothing to do with the install at all.
For some reason FSW really likes to name text files .xml. Just open hardware.xml in notepad. One of many “nuances” that makes working with their products an adventure.
I did another flight with the latest version (4.4.6) today. Zero issues with the installer, it looks, sounds and flies as beautifully as ever, all gauges and systems worked properly and made sense, the autopilot worked flawlessly and also no issues with setting courses and altitudes (altitude selection works in thousands and hundreds as it should and the course and heading selectors work in increments of ones unless accelerated by continuous input or holding the Shift key).
I can only strongly advise that anyone who has issues with this aircraft looks for interferring mods (including liveries!) or control bindings.
I went for a nighttime flight recently and all the panel lights started flickering randomly. Since the 414 doesn’t have failures modelled, it can’t be dodgy bulbs or wiring.
