I’m attempting to fly the Grand Caravan for the first time and it’s being really weird. Enabling autopilot causes it so try to do a barrel roll. In addition the engine keeps spooling down to idle, then back up to the correct spot, over and over. I’ve not had these issues in any other plane.
Is the Grand Caravan broken?
Hi @SinfulDanTheMan
I just did a short 76nm hop in the standard MS 208 (passenger version, although hopefully it’s not an issue with another version of the plane!).
I did it IFR, with an RNAV approach at the end. Flew “direct” departure after takeoff and used HDG mode until released by ATC to my route, then activated NAV and turned toward it in HDG mode. All this while climbing to the filed altitude. AP on after hitting 1000’AGL.
No issues noted, and certainly no barrel rolls! LOL
It flew the programmed route just fine, and responded to VNAV and the TOD/BOD cues. ATC, as usual for me at least, did not cue the descent, and kept telling me to climb back to cruise altitude (“yes, will do”…ignore, ignore, ignore repeated calls to climb!). At one point it told me I could cancel IFR and finish with visual…Didn’t want to do that, so just kept flying my RNAV approach.
One thing I did notice, was that once on the GPS/GP the lateral navigation wanted to “hunt” the correct heading, i.e. kept making small changes in heading back and forth. Not enough wind correction to be making that many turns…but I digress!
Have you checked to see if you have anything that is bound to the condition lever that might be putting it into “cutoff” mode, and then back to normal mode?
The only thing that comes to mind with the hard turn is if you happen to be crossing the GPS route close enough to actually activate “GPS” but are on a “hard angle”. The actual Garmin is bank-limited, so it wouldn’t roll too hard. Not sure if the sim version is limited also. Could be some completely other issue. But that’s what came to mind right off. I’ll try to give that a test later and see what it does.
Regards
P.S. I tried a 90 degree intercept of a GPS course, and the sim did normal turns to get on track. So that’s not an issue apparently.
Also, you might check that both aileron and rudder trim is set correctly to start with, and that you don’t have anything bound to them that might be inadvertently pushing them hard over to one side or the other. This plane has both of those trims modelled.
thanks for the indepth first hand report! good to know the plane is fine for you. it was such a strange behavior for me. i did forget to note I was using the parachuting configuration, not sure if that matters.
and as far as I know the plane is using the standard airplane keyboard/joystick configs that are shared with all the other planes. and those guys are fine. maybe MSFS just had some bugs that reared their head during the playthrough.
Hey! I have some bad problems too with the Caravan…
I did a quick flight in the skydiver version without issue. Hmmmmmm
I did respond to the other thread with similar issues on the flotation version.
To me… it seems like either fuel. electrical, or condition lever issues. Either something misconfigured at startup, or fuel valves, electrical switches, or the conditioner handle being cross linked to something (keyboard command, mouse, etc) and closing the valves/switches or moving conditioner to cutoff position. Might pause the sim when the engine stops, and double check the fuel valves and electrical and condition lever positions.
Sorry, it’s just stumping me that my default version (using standard “start with engine running”) tests are working as expected in the three versions of the plane I tested.
Regards