Local Legend V: Beechcraft Model 18 ("Twin Beech")

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Itā€™s been awhile ā€” Iā€™ve been distracted by beta testing duties and other shiny aircraft, but Iā€™ve returned to the Twin Beech and Iā€™m all the happier for it.

This continues to be one of my all-time favorites in the sim. With the upgraded WT GNS 530, itā€™s all the better.

I know some find her ground manners atrocious, but I donā€™t seem to have the same struggles.

I would love it if MS would put a little heat under Carenadoā€™s seat to get them to address the outstanding issues. Fortunately, none of them are too bad, but the lack of lighting in the HSI and clock is a bit of a drag for night flying.

This plane really would be outstanding with more realism baked in, but as it stands it suits so much of what Iā€™m looking for ā€” multi-engine, radials, anti-ice, vintage and modern instrumentation, fetching good looks, great selection of tasteful liveries, and more.

Iā€™m sure thankful to have it!

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100% agree

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Totally agree - very well saidā€¦ and for what itā€™s worth, the ground handling is very realistic based on multiple accounts Iā€™ve read. Itā€™s not difficult, really, just needs some practice and more concentration as you really have to fly this aircraft to a standstill before you can relax in the left hand seat. ā€¦

Itā€™ took me quite a few flying hours ( I wonā€™t confess how many )to master landings and a few more to master the rudder dance to keep her lined up on the runway. And every now and again, a loss of concentration or a bit of arrogance will lead her to bite. And bounce hard. But this is a very rewarding aeroplane to fly and once airborne the Beech 18 is a beauty to hand fly, showing why it is thought of as a real ā€œpilotā€™s aeroplaneā€. I donā€™t even think I really appreciated what that meant until I really started to fly the ā€˜18.
Iā€™d love to see some freighter variants rather than the exclusive business class accommodation variants.

But I think this one is a real treasure and with the C414 and CJ4 AAU beta are the aircraft I tend to find Iā€™m flying the most

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The Beech 18 is the plane I keep coming back to. It ticks all the boxes to me, from her looks to the right balance of instruments. And the cockpit is simply gorgeous in VR. The 3D modelling is stunning.

You can land her in pretty tight spots too. Done a fair amount of flying in the Alps and Papua New Guinea

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Hi!

I really love this aircraft and until know Iā€™ve been flying it using the pms50 mod. Now with the new avionics from Working Title I am thinking to move to the new ā€œdefaultā€ version. Is it worth it or for the moment the pms50 version is more complete, accurate,ā€¦?

Iā€™m using the PMS50-GMS530 mod. As far as I know t comes with more features, like wind direction and speed. And it works a treat with the Beech 18

Just be aware that the WT530 is not yet ā€œdefaultā€. Itā€™s a beta version released for people to test and help them finish it. It works well, but does break some 3rd party planes and avionics. You canā€™t have the PMS50 GNS530 and the WT530 installed at the same time. Well, you can, but stuff wonā€™t work. So uninstall either one or the other. Iā€™m not saying you shouldnā€™t check it out. Just be aware of the issues.

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Just a heads up here. With the new WT GNS upgrade with AAU1, the autopilot is going to adhere to the same constraints as the other upgraded Garmin units.

Whether you are flying GPS, VOR or LOC, you need to be within proximity of your flight path to get the AP to engage and follow it.

Iā€™m flying right now, playing with VOR and LOC around KSBP. If you have a given radial set on the CDI for VOR, you need to fly at, say, a 30Ā° trajectory towards the radial (if you are far from it). Once you see the deviation indicator start moving towards center, you can flip the rotary knob to OMNI and the AP will pick up the radial and alter course to fly it. If youā€™re flying GPS, just select NAV rather than OMNI.

For VOR, you also canā€™t just spin the CDI to a vastly different radial and expect the AP to track that change. Past a mild deviation it will disengage. Itā€™s best to engage HDG, dial a new radial, then heading bug a new course towards that radial ā€” repeating the same procedure as before, engaging OMNI as you see the needle starting moving.

The same goes for LOC when capturing a localizer. Flip the rotary knob to LOC NORM once you see the deviation indicator start moving. She still captures the GS as before.

Iā€™m really loving the new GNS. It is so good and so full of useful functionality!

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Fully tanked, and I get a low fuel warning. Checking the gauge to the left - itā€™s almost empty.
Any ideas whats going on? =( Interference with some mod, or is this a known problem? How to tank it correctly?

It sounds to me like some strange mod conflict.

I fly this plane regularly, and Iā€™ve not run into that issue.

Are you fueling it fully from the World Map or from the Weight dialog box once in the cockpit?

EDIT:

I just filled the tanks to 100% from the World Map and they donā€™t appear full on the gauge. The mains are reading ~8/10 and the aux are reading ~2.5/10.

Also, there is something really wrong with the Weight and Balance dialog box for fueling this aircraft. It has 20 fuel sliders! With the tanks set to 100% from the World Map, each slider shows 50% in the dialog box. Iā€™m going to write this bug up.

Hereā€™s the bug for the incorrect fuel levels:
D18S Twin Beech Fuel Gauges Reading Incorrectly - Bug Reports & Wishlist / Aircraft & Systems - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Hereā€™s the bug for the slider issue:
D18S Twin Beech in-Cockpit Weight and Balance Fuel Slider Issue - Bug Reports & Wishlist / Aircraft & Systems - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

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Hey, seriously, this is the coolest plane in my hangar but if they donā€™t fix that dark HSI Iā€™m going to sell it and buy a bunch of Pipers. You have been warned!

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Maybe they installed the dark ops Air America version meant for the Caribou by mistake ?

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Do you still have to mess with setting empty or full weight CG first, in order to get it to behave (level trim)

Trim is bad in MSFS overall versus real life trim however I personally did not see any ā€œworse offā€ behaviour with the 18.

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Affirming what Trustdesa81 said, that was never a thing. If thats a technique that helps you personally then continue to do it. But its not a universal requirement.

What was meaning ( posted somewhere above also).

Flying twin beech

  • Set Empty CG to 34.5%
  • Trim set to 25% nose up
  • No flaps (runway is 10ā€™000 ft long)
  • Tailwheel unlocked
  • No brakes set when lined up
  • Increasing throttles slowly
  • Dancing the pedals lightly
  • Yoke pushed fully forward to lift tail wheel early,
  • Slowly releasing pressure on yoke to keep level
  • Accelerating until aircraft lifts off by itself
  • Gear up early
  • Trimming nose down fast with increasing airspeed
  • Reduce power to 32 inHg @ 2200 RPM to keep 100 kts climb speed
  • Climb out and reduce power to 28 inHg @ 1800 RPM
  • Trim for level flight, approx. 10% nose down (yes minus ten percent)

Otherwise would could not get it to trim close to level for more than a few minutes. When was released.

Yeah I went back to the posts in Sep 22 when the handling issues were being widely discussed. It seems for some the issue was never severe, others saw the issue resolved after update 10 and a specific patch were applied, and still others saw no change. One user only experienced a change after he uninstalled the plane and reinstalled it. The only person I could find that mentioned setting the CG was OldBold but he was also one who stated that the updates fixed his issue.

Maybe try reinstalling it.

I personally have no faith or expectation that the flight characteristics of any of these planes is close to IRL. My best estimation is to listen to the opinions of real pilots in their reviews but even those are subjective and varied.

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I uninstalled it. One of very few payware add-ons I have uninstalled. Trim behavior was simply ridiculous and there was no discernible change after the patch.

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