I believe it also applies auto-rudder to keep turns coordinated without the pilot needing to use rudder in turns as you would in a light aircraft. I’ll just start applying some aileron trim before takeoff for future
we need the boss Magnar Nordal in here, to shed some wisdom
I don’t think there’s autorudder. The rudder is the problem with the ATR’s. It’s twisted if that makes sense. The rudder trim is off at the beginning, and with the camera behind the tail as you climb out, watch as you “stand up the tail” with a lot of rudder trim. It’s almost as if the rudder becomes “taller” (in the flight model) with the trim, hence more effective. That’s my impression.
The real aircraft needs right aileron AND rudder trim, rudder trim goes automatic when YD is engaged.
Do you mean the real aircraft or sim?
Correct, with YD ON the autotrim should kick in and trim to the right for coordinated flight, also need some aileron trim to the right in flight to keep wings level on the real aircraft.
You don’t trim the ailerons before take-off (rudder and aileron trim neutral). In case of an engine failure (depending which engine fails) it could work against you if you have some trim in already, the aircraft isn’t certified for that.
I even flew one ATR that needed aileron trim to the left, that one was probably bend somewhere
On the ATR, auto-trim kicks in as soon as YD is ON, together with the typical YD functions of course. Even in case of engine failure it would automatically compensate.
Generally the autotrim isn’t fast enough should an engine fail during take-off or go-around. So manual input is needed (disengaging AP and YD if already engaged, YD will disengage itself when applying rudder input).
So manual input, trim, then pretty quickly you can let the YD (autotrim) and AP handle it. Further power changes are perfectly handled by the autotrim.
The ATR -500 and older has no auto-trim on the rudder, on a “normal” aircraft you fly with one hand on the yoke and one hand on the power levers, on a -500 (or older) you fly with one hand on the yoke and one hand on the rudder trim switch .
Rudder trim switch is always worn out on older ATRs, one the -600 you hardly use rudder trim in flight, it is a nice improvement over older versions. But I highly doubt this is implemented (just like pretty much anything else it is either wrong, flawed or missing).
The -600 is really nice avionics wise, but it is still an ATR. It is slow, difficult to fly in thermals, turbulence etc. due to the straight wings it reacts to the slightest bump, it is like stirring a pot of soup sometimes. And the performance is awful in the summer, in the winter it is 💩 with icing.
Therefore it is best for the ATR to migrate with the birds, going north in the summer and moving south in the winter. ATR and icing, hot weather or mountains are not very good combo’s.
The manuals and procedures from ATR are the worst I have seen for any aircraft I have flown so far, (electronic) checklist as well, it is written by lawyers, not by pilots. During an engine failure you are reading the same stuff 3 times.
During smoke, fumes or fire you are reading checklists full of irrelevant stuff literally until touchdown. Where other aircraft types emphasize to land immediately and don’t delay landing to finish procedures, ATR leads you down a rabbit hole of checklist after checklist. Electrical smoke is the worst:
- Smoke or fumes checklist
- Electrical smoke checklist (ACW GEN 1+2 off)
- Loss of ACW 1+2 checklist
- Gravity gear extension checklist
By the way, oxygen system only protects you for 15 min depending on system installed. Not that you want to be in the air any longer than that in case of a fire. Good luck reading checklists until touchdown, it is just in case anything goes wrong they can say, see but it is in the checklist.
2000 hrs total on ATR 42/72, -500 and -600. Guess you can tell I’m not the biggest fan . Had a lot of fun as well flying it, but some things don’t make a lot of sense.
thanks for the info, and do you know if this is modelled in the sim?
I remember doing that with the Majestic Q400 in P3D…it was the first time I ever mapped the rudder trim to a switch on my yoke lol. Took some getting used to for sure.
I didn’t feel convinced when I flew it this morning
This post was not only very informative but also gave me a right good laugh - awesome
On British aircraft I used to fly we made the joke “it’s not broken, it’s British” on the ATR that became “it’s not flawed, it’s French”.
And ATR stands for “Always Try Reset”, often something doesn’t work, you do a reset and it magically solved itself.
Or Air TRactor, whichever you prefer.
Lets see how long it takes for this to get flagged
Well, I doubt they were trying to model all those quirks when they modeled this aircraft. It’s broken and unfinished. That’s the state of it.
Mate i have a question, is single engine taxt that difficult in rea life as it is in msfs or is that just a bug…
Ive tried doing single engine taxi and it just seams to pull to the left when shutting down the left hand engine…
Loved your info above…
Atr is like the opposite to the sturdy canadian built Dashies… Im guessing hence why widero never went with atrs
On the real aircraft it is no big deal, you need a very slight deflection on the tiller to keep going straight but it is hardly anything.
Turning over the dead engine is a bit difficult, you shouldn’t make turns using max tiller deflection.
For me this aircraft was the most anticipated. But it is a huge disappointment. Even two years after its release it’s full of bugs. I am very sad Milviz (Blackbird as it’s called now) cancelled their ATR because this junk came out. They would have done a truly amazing job, but instead, we have a forever broken piece of utter filth.
It’s DOA. None of the controls work, the overhead is lit up while the battery is off and no GPU connected.
Oh, and it’s sometimes available, sometimes it’s not.
- Unable to start on runway - all systems are dark, tablet is non-functional, and unusual sounds coming from hydraulic pumps
- Despite clear night conditions with no fog, switching on taxi lights results in visibility similar to looking through a white curtain
- When looking through the left cockpit window at night, visibility is obscured as if by a white curtain, regardless of taxi light status
- LNAV (Lateral Navigation) is not functioning reliably. The aircraft sometimes follows the path to the next waypoint correctly, but other times it deviates and executes an erratic turn maneuver (see screenshot).
- Activating the terrain radar causes the aircraft to freeze in place (while the simulator continues running).
- This seems to follow a common pattern with certain developers. While the software shows promise, it never reaches a state where it’s actually enjoyable to use.
Couldn’t agree more.
Hello,
Does anyone else noticed wrong values on Engine display when setting payload and fuel from the EFB ?
Yes.
Here is an unacknowledged bug regarding that: