New Release: Carenado Piper PA-34 Seneca V

Reporting “Piper Arrow” would be good, or simply “Arrow.” The PA28 came in quite a few flavors, from the two-place PA-28-140 Cherokee Cruiser I took my first “Discovery” flight in, to the 235HP Dakota. With Pipers, you almost need to call out the three digit suffix (or model name) to let ATC know which airframe you’re operating; it’s a long (and sometimes confusing) list.

In my early days I’d have ATC ask - more than once - “say type” when I announced simply Piper or Cessna. After a few requests like that I figured I’d always “introduce myself” with the type too… :slight_smile:

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Well, Seneca shows up for the TTS file in MSFS for the PA34:

  "ATCCOM.AC_MODEL PA34.0.text": "Seneca",
  "ATCCOM.AC_MODEL PA34.0.tts": "Seneca",

Little Nav Map shows the type as PA34, so I’m not sure whay I am not “Seneca 630” instead of “630” to ATC. The model.cfg file references CARPA34.xml, so I will try and add a model CARPA34 into the TTS file and see how it goes.

So has anyone problems with the sound of this plane? To me it sounds like an old scuffed vinyl record when using flight controls, so many pops and clicks in the audio. I find it so annoying it’s not really enjoyable to fly in this state atm.

Has anybody experienced a deep dive of death during an ILS approach in the Seneca?
I seem to get them in every ILS approach in this plane, doesn’t happen in any other plane.

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Oddly, I got the same thing an hour ago and just after reading your post. I caught it quickly, but will need to have another look at this. Sadly, am not going to be back until the weekend.

For the IFR lover, this is an interesting aircraft. Much to do and keep you busy. For VFR, a different matter. You can’t see much other than engines and the overall visibility from the cockpit is not good unless you could poke your head out of it. I quite like it and in previous sims that outside view was less important.

With a bit of polish, this might eventually make a nice aircraft. Over to you Carenado.

I just tried a coupled ILS on 06 at EDI and it performed flawlessly.

Yes I get it too, every time. Now I just disengage the autopilot as soon as it’s lined up and hand fly it in to land; it’s so easy to fly that it’s not a problem. Hope it gets fixed though. Despite that, I really like this plane.

Do you mean you used to try to have it autoland??? I don’t understand what you are saying… You SHOULD hand-fly it once you are lined up. Or do you mean once you are lined up and before you intercept the glide slope?

The pitch is way too sensitive. Even with alpha yoke less sensitive setting it is hard to maintain altitude when hand flying.

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Sorry, a bit imprecise with my language there. I meant that for me this plane will catch the glide slope but then every time nose dives towards the ground. So now, the moment I have a visual on the runway (i.e. well before the glide slope would be captured) I disengage the autopilot and hand fly it in from there.
(Of course, even if the glide slope was being captured perfectly, I’d still be hand flying it in at at the end.)

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OK, that makes sense. Weird! I never had any issues with ILS GS on this or any other aircraft.

Can I ask the process you use to capture the approach?

As in, the order of doing things? Additionally, do you capture the G/S from above or below?

Well, I envy you! I mainly fly the CRJ right now, and its relationship with the ILS GS is a little… unpredictable. Still love it though.

My approach is simple…

  1. I never trust auto-tuning of frequencies. So first thing I do is double check the frequency of the runway and then enter it in NAV1 manually.

  2. Depending on the aircraft and avionics package, really. But in the case of Seneca, I simply activate approach mode on AP after I am past the IAF and once I am right about to make the last turn onto final, I switch the CDI from GPS to LOC1. That’s it. Of course, by then, I am low enough to be able to capture GS. That’s all, really.

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Hmmm. I tend to trust the auto-tuners. That’s probably it.

Yeah, no… and you wouldn’t trust them in real AC either. The way I look at it is, what else do you have to do while in cruise? That’s perfect time to make sure everything is setup for approach and landing. The less of that I have the do in the end, the less scrambling there is.

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Good point, well made, as they say. I’ll try to stop being such a lazy git.

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Eh, it’s just how I do everything in life… I trust but verify. Most accidents and issues with ANYTHING (not just aviation) happen because people assume too much. “I thought he had it under control!” “I thought she was gonna do that!” “I thought this frequency gets dialed in automatically!”… So basically, I assume that even if someone/something else is responsible for a task, I think that there is a good chance something gets missed somehow. So I always double check everything. I can’t do things another way, otherwise it will drive me crazy. But I think this is all part of my occupation - we HAVE to be like that.

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I’ve never flown the Seneca V but I would treat it exactly the same way I’d treat every aircraft. ‘Approach’ mode often produces confusion, as it isn’t a mode for approach as such, but the mode with which you capture the Glideslope.

The general way of doing things is to arm Loc (or Nav in this case) and wait until the Localiser is captured. Once it is, you would arm Approach mode and wait for it to capture the glide. Ideally you always capture from below, but in the real world that’s often not possible. On the 787 we have a specific procedure for capturing from above and the same would work in the Seneca;

  1. Ensure the Localiser is captured
  2. Set no less than 1000ft AAL on the MCP (not relevant to the Seneca)
  3. Engage Vertical Speed and descent at 1500 to a max of 2000fpm
  4. Ensure Approach mode is armed
  5. Once the G/S is captured set the Missed Approach Altitude

Regarding the ILS I shot in EDI, I did so level at the platform of 4000ft with the ILS tuned on Nav1 and NAV engaged on the Autopilot. Once it was tracking the localiser I hit APP on the autopilot and it picked up the glideslope perfectly and followed it for a good 8-9 miles before I disconnected it. Maybe there is a bug and I was just lucky, but following the same logic on ALL automatic approaches on all aircraft should always produce the right result. The golden rule is that you NEVER arm Approach mode until the localiser is established. Ever.

ps On the 787 we get no choice but to trust autotuning. You literally never enter an ILS/VOR frequency. You simply enter the approach into the FMC, magic happens and you land :laughing:

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Airliners are different! I just had fun with that earlier today on a 757 doing a flight into Greenland - there literally was no way to capture GS from below because of terrain, you had a very specific approach for that airport, so I had to capture it from above by “catching up to it” once LOC is armed and captured.

Boeing is different in general - they require you to capture LOC before you are allowed to activate APPR. And yes, the auto-tuning is done automatically. My inclination would still be to check the NAV RAD page and match the frequency in there with the chart. :wink: