@MatronlyApollo8 Hi Matronly. Yes I am. One day I hope to have enough time to figure that out, but between development work and looking after a pair of toddlers I rarely seem to have time for anything else, let alone flying for fun. 
Free time is one rare gift these days, hehe. I was just curious which shared cockpit tool was being used, as I havenāt done any development specifically for that yet in MSFS (did plenty in FSX). Iām hoping Asobo will have a native solution for that soon.
Sounds fun though!
Cheers.
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Hi everyone. Just a quick heads up for those of you using the SU 11 beta. If you fly the S.55s in it you might notice a major framerate performance degradation. This is being caused by a new change in the way the sim handles contact points.
Iāve already corrected the issue on my end and I will be submitting an update in the next few days, which will hopefully be available either before or shortly after the full release of SU 11.
Cheers!
-Mike
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Will this impact those not in the Beta?
@VoraciousJet
Hi there. No, if the update is ready ahead of time the change will have no effect on anyone staying on SU 10. Iāve already tested that. Itās purely an SU 11 issue.
Cheers.
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Any idea what was in todays update?
I think it might be the top windows now slide open although Iām not sure they didnāt before.
Had a lovely hand flown but still relaxing flight from the Rome seaport down to Naples bay earlier and I just thought Iād try the handle.
@DensestSnail693 @Chudamaru
Todayās update contains just a single fix, a workaround for a new issue introduced in SU11 which was degrading framerate performance. Unless youāre using the SU11 beta you wonāt see any change.
The canopy handles on the X were added a couple of updates back actually, but glad you like flying in convertible mode! I do as well.
Cheers.
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Thanks and I can confirm the performance is immaculate - and I still canāt get over the amount of detail and love put into them. The new thermals really brings them alive (in a good way) and I can see me flying both models a lot more often than I have been.
Cheers too
Brian
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@DensestSnail693
Great, glad to hear it! (performance restored).
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised at how dynamic the new thermals have made the S.55ās handling now. It certainly makes sense, given that the plane basically had sailplane style wings, with high aspect ratio and camber. Combined with the huge lift from the center span between the hulls it would definitely have been been quite a ride on a hot day over land. Flying over water was probably a relief for those pilots.
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Is it possible to mod in any kind of auto-pilot? Even very basic hold heading and altitude would be good. It keeps veering off course for me. I looked at the GTN750, but it seems you need to edit a config file that this aircraft doesnāt have.
@TheBlackWind977 Marketplace aircraft are encrypted, so it is not currently possible to modify the configuration files unfortunately.
I will give some thought to an autopilot of some kind if there is a future update, but itās a delicate balancing act between realism and accessibility. There were several negative comments initially about the modern avionics the plane shipped with, so I spent quite a bit of time producing an update with more period appropriate stuff. An autopilot sort of goes against that idea for this vintage of aircraft (not to mention installing an actual autopilot in a real S.55 would have been a monumental task, maybe even impossible, given its control system).
For the time being I recommend trying the virtual copilot/flight assistant function if you want to let the plane cruise on its own. The copilot will attempt to hold the closest 1000 foot mark to your current altitude (above 3000ā) and does an excellent job of holding heading.
I donāt see any persistent drift in heading, aside from disturbances from thermals and turbulence, but if you do you can adjust one of the throttles slightly to tune it out, which is how it was done in the real plane. Since the props are contra-rotating this will give you essentially a combined rudder / aileron trim.
Cheers!
6 Likes
Could hide one behind the panels each side of the cockpit, like the Radials did with there sat nav in a floor hatch with a pull up stand.
There are keybindings for toggling freeze altitude and freeze attitude, both can be assigned to the same key ā¦ Just tested by me but IMO it makes for a boring flight
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Thank you very much for the detailed response. I understand some might not like it but key bindings would work great for those who do without in the least disturbing those who donāt. I wouldnāt see the need of a AP in the cockpit. It would take something awayā¦ But I like Flyingironās P38 option though. It has a tablet you can use to lock heading and such if you wish to use it.
It definitely drifts left for me - it tilts left. At least the starting leg of the bush trip I tried. Iāll try the engine settings though. I had no idea you could steer that way! For normal flying no AP would be fine, but I would like to do the bush trips and I just canāt sit in front of the computer for that many hours at a time most of the time plus the constant left pull is annoying to constantly need to correct. Iād like to do long range flights as that seems a large part of what this plane was made for. Iāll try the co-pilot but isnāt some of that stuff disabled for bush trips?
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It hardly matters. Iāll be sleeping in the hammock
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@TheBlackWind977 Hmm, it shouldnāt be rolling left, thatās something Iāve never seen. My first thought would be to check the weight and balance. The fuel and passengers are in the hulls, which are very far from the centre of gravity, so any weight imbalance between them would be very amplified.
Failing that do try running slightly different throttle settings for each engine, that should trim out a small imbalance.
It definitely rolls left for me. I tried messing with the engines but it doesnāt seem to change. I unplugged my joystick/throttle to make sure it wasnāt that and used keys to make sure it was flat and straight but within a few seconds are starts going left and within maybe 15 seconds after that itās going more than 1 degree left per second. In about 20 seconds it looks like this Screenshot by Lightshot
I see that the co-pilot controls are enabled in this instance, but they donāt seem to actually do anything.
@TheBlackWind977 Do you see the same behaviour in normal free flight mode? Does it improve with higher airspeed (you are quite slow in the screenshot) or stay the same?
If it behaves properly in free flight maybe something is off in the mission file setup wise. Will see if I can replicate.
I would suggest that if your handās not on the wheel at 70 knots in a 100 year old aircraft you are doing yourself no favours. 
@TheBlackWind977 Shot in the darkā¦ but can you please check that you are using the āModernā flight model in the sim settings? The S.55 uses many elements of the modern model and will absolutely not fly correctly if using the legacy one. I just tested that myself on legacy mode and I see the same persistent left turning tendency (due to engine and prop torque being calculated incorrectly in legacy mode).