Ok, here are my raw and ‘live’ test flight notes for anyone interested (will update if more comes up):
- In career the C408 now uses the the new ‘Livery 01’ instead of the previous one (now ‘Livery 02’ I believe)
- Fuel and payload page in career is now slightly less borked than before (when it displayed a max TOW of almost 15 tons), but still a messt (now displaying max TOW of 7741kg, while free flight says 8119kg and the EFB 8618kg - don’t ask me)
- Cargo door can now be opened!
- On my system at least, I get weird and reproducible frame drops / stutters while standing next to the co-pilot’s doors or between the fuselage and the left engine under the left wing. Not sure what’s going on there.
- Flight hour meter did not get reset
- Changing COM and NAV frequncies works correctly
- Typing in XPDR code works correctly
- Changing CDI course now works correctly (single degree steps instead of double)
- Other previously broken functions on the PFD (Tmr/Ref, Nearest) now work correctly
- Warnings on the PFD still show up twice
- Test knob still doesn’t rotate the full 360°
- Inertial separator switches still are two way only
- Loading an EFB flight plan into G1000 works correctly (shame almost, got so used to hacking fixes and airways into the keyboard)
- As mentioned, still the dot instead of an airplane no the MFD; values for NG, fuel flow, voltages, etc. now overlap the map
- Range knob, FMS knob and other previously INOP knobs on the 477 GCU (keyboard) remain INOP
- Scroll wheel for FLC / VS modes now works correctly
- Switch for battery now moves in the correct direction (up/down instead of left/right); it’s not a three way switch anymore, though (middle ‘GND OPS’ setting is not selectable)
- Switches for taxi / landing and nav / strobe lights are now reversed in direciton for some reason (mouse wheel down moves them up and vice versa), all other (two way) light switches still function as before
- No ‘exceed’ anymore when starting engines and pushing throttle fully forward
- As mentioned before, engines still start with condition in cutoff
- (Can’t say anything about taxi performance yet, winds too strong on the tarmac to say anything for sure)
- Looks like you’re able (and supposed) to use the whole torque range now, climb perfromance at 95% is now more ore less what it was previously at 75% (at least in FLC / 150kt)
- Probe heat warning now only goes off when you get into cold air, not at takeoff anymore
- Level off from FLC worked correctly, but at 150kt it did so before. Will have to test that with the more problematic 130kt later.
- For ~170 KIAS in cruise you now also need more torque (~90% instead of 75%) and therefore more fuel (~340 pph per side instead of ~300 pph previously), numbers might be skewed due to strong winds, needs more testing. But be sure to take more fuel than before in career!
- When you use the ‘Decrease Propeller Pitch’ binding, pulling props back still moves the right one back further than the left one, as it did before
- Far as I can say so far, prop cones dont become transparent in clouds anymore
- Trying to change the descent rate / flight path angle for a VNV descent now breaks the VNV profile, as in other G1000 planes. This is a regression from the beta that unfortunately didn’t get fixed even though I reported it weeks ago. I already opened a new regular bug report for this issue. Please vote for it, so somebody will look into this!
- Windows now get dirty much more quickly in cruise than they did in the beta (lotsa bugs at FL 120, apparently)
- Only just noticed: The selected modes on the autopilot panel now light up!
- Detail decals, like the dirt streaks on the wings behind the turbine exausts, now remain visible from a distance. No noticable LOD problems anymore so far.
- The issue where the autopilot starts flying below the flight path on the last ~1000 ft AGL of an RNAV or ILS approach (especially when you reduce your speed) still seems to be there, though less severe than before? Not sure, needs more testing.
- Landing once again in 20kt headwind (french atlantic coast), reverse thrust seems to be a lot less powerful than before (or maybe just slower in response). Barely any deceleration before I added full brakes into the mix. Needs more testing, but definitely felt very different.
- This prototypical C408 career / medium cargo / ~1050km flight used up ~950kg of fuel, about 150kg more than it did pre-patch.
One more short test flight ‘around the block’ in zero winds condition:
- Taxi performance is much less agressive than before. She willl easily still go 30+ kt in idle if you let her, but it takes a lot more to get her going from a stand still. She won’t start rolling by herself anymore unless you have some amount of tail wind or are on a slope. (This is in ‘low idle’ which from what I learned here’ is less of a ‘low idle’ than the ‘default idle’ unless very cold.) I suspsect this is more the effect of the general power decrease in the low torque range than a deliberate change to taxi performance.
- Ground Fine’ is still effectively INOP, even just a hair of beta will end up reducing you speed rather than just controlling your acceleration in idle
- Even in zero winds she feels more sluggish on takeoff than before. Not drastic, but noticable. Needs more testing to draw any conclusions
- Steep climb at max thrust and FLC 125 kt. Level off works perfectly! No more overshooting the target altitude!
- Landing felt more or less like it did before, no problems with the autopilot flying under the glide path this time. Might be fixed after all. Got a lot of ‘don’t skink’ on final, though.
- Beta really is much less powerful than before now. Landing at 100 kt and applying fulll reverse immideately, after ~600m of roll I still was slightly above 50 kt. Brakes have a quite agressive bite, though.
- And last but not least, in zero winds, light airplane (~500 kg fuel, no cargo), full flaps, full thrust, letting the turbines spool up with brakes applied (she still can’t quite hold it) and agressive pitch up, I was able to get her into the air after a takeoff roll of about 350m at ~70 kt (and plenty of MNSPD warnings). No idea how that compares to the real thing or the pre-patch 408.
And that’s the end of my ‘live blogging’ here. In conclusion, the update is certainly a step in the right direction. There are a lot less issues you have to work around in flight and more eye candy to enjoy (with the exception of the dirty windshield).
But don’t expect a bug free or particularly realistic operation either. There is still work to be done. Whether they do we will have to wait and see.