DG Aviation DG-1001E neo

Anybody else struggling with the FCU controls? It seems that I can interact with the unit in “lock” mode, but when I switched to my preferred “legacy” cockpit controls, I can´t reset the engine warning signs by pushing the knob. It just keeps beeping.

Oh, and anybody found a POH for this type? I managed to find manuals for other DG1000 series types, but not for the 1001E - probably not too different, at least not in MSFS. I just want to memorize a few key speed values and any special procedures if there is any for this type.

Do you try to do this on the ground, or while flying?

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Got it running. I first tried in on the ground. Works when you fly and it’s like that because the prop needs to windmill in order to start the engine if I understood that correctly. Although it’s hard to imagine that being a limiting factor on an electric engine. The Discus 2c FES doesn’t have that “issue”, it runs on the ground as well, which is why I tried it that way first.

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Overall not a bad implementation of the DG1001. I have flown the non FES version for around 50h and can recommend the following improvements:

  • Airbrakes are far too ineffective. Higher sinkrates expected (at least 2x higher than currently with full airbrakes)
  • Ground effect is far too strong. Causes very long floats during landing.
  • Canopy strobe can be brighter
  • Electric gear actuation noise missing
  • FES does not retract after use. Aerodynamic forces should push the blades back
  • Sound missing for opening airbrakes (over-center lock sound)
  • Perhaps a bit too unforgiving at low speeds. It wants to spin to easily/aggresive
  • Please do not automatically load gliders with waterballast each flight. It should be optional, but not standard. In real life most people fly empty. Especially trainers are never loaded.
  • Yaw strings look a bit weird. Usually the entire string moves with the flow (like a pendulum). But this is just nitpicking.
  • Variometer seems to just be a vertical speed indicator. It should not respond as much to pull ups. Variometers work on total energy rather than only potential energy.
  • Aural cueing for thermals is far too loud. This should be very subtle and sometimes not even there at all.
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I agree with almost everything. The thermal clues are an interesting topic to discuss. In real life, we get a lot of feedback from the surroundings, and that is missing from a desktop pc simulator. Some of this feedback might need a little bit of amplification to help simulator pilots.
The best option would be to make the volume adjustable.

I did not fly the DG-1000 family in real life, so can´t really comment on the airbrakes. I was able to land where I wanted in MSFS. Both the POH what I found online and the MSFS tutorial recommends sideslip if high(er) sink rate is needed. Is this really a practice in real life? My instructor (long time ago) told me not to do sideslip with the airbrakes extended.

I fly only DG-101 in RL (one ‘0’ missing, but that makes great difference here :wink: ) so I am not qualified to judge, but generally in comparision to other gliders those airbrakes indeed seem ineffective.

Can you also test/comment on directional stability of modelled DG when on ground - as I and some others at the forum found out that it is significantly less stable left/right while rolling than modelled Ls8, and more than gliders flown in RL.
I tried do a start from a sloped runway and it started dancing left/right and even circling as if it was on ice, in the same place Ls8 was stable as expected.

Also I feel qualified to agree with your statements:

As for ridiculous aural cueing for thermals I filed a bug report (consider comment and/or upvote): Highly unrealistic rattling and strong wind thermal sounds when gliding

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Thanks. Very good. This very much also confirms my impressions. See post further up.

The roll response to me feels really on point. The yaw response on the ground is indeed maybe a bit sensitive, especially when the tail is lifted. But for me it was still very flyable, and not too extreme.

Yes. Just reduce the rudder sensitivity a bit of your joystick. It isn’t that hard IRL even if you tow with the rope attached to the winch launch point and not the nose.

Yes. Yesterday I bought the Discus2. (I have to say - flies much realistically than the LS8, D1000 and as you pointed out has the essentials already nicely implemented). In the process I came across this Kinetic app and that allowed me to connect both my Desktop as well as my Mobile XCsoar nav to MSFS. This might work as a workaround until the LX is improved for the DG, LS8.

Or is there even a better way to connect XCSoar than this Kinetic app?

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For me older albatross app probably version 0.10 or even 0.9.x (by the same authors) gave way more fixes in xcsoar (smoother track line) than current kinectic (they changed range of nmea sentences in some version), but as a drawback didn’t provide wind direction. There was also some separate addon for sending nav data but for me it worked with only with lk8000

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Anyone also fails to brake the DG-1001?
While someone in this thread wrote, that the glider stops way to fast, it’s impossible for me to get the glider stopped (in the glider trainings) before the end of the runway.
Approach speed is < 100km/h, touchdown at beginning of runway, airbrakes are activated. Used my Saitek rudder pedals (brakes), keyboard brake keybinding, even parking brake. Also deleted my controls profile. But the glider speed does not decrease.
Is there a trick to get the glider stopped?
Wondering if something in my setting is corrupt, mhh…

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Airbrakes fully deployed stopped it very quickly, so I presumed that they are linked to the wheel brakes, but I am not sure 100%. If I don’t have them fully deployed, I have button assigned to the wheel brake. That does the job.

Approach speed seems right. Landing against the wind. Wheel touches a bit below 80. Fully pulled. Rest as above. And as usual, clear the runway and roll into the gras to the side of it.

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Super fun first flight ridge soaring off the coast of Chile today, but noticed some visual issues with the canopy.

  • It seems almost frosted due to reflections.

Sticking my head above the frosted canopy to see the difference this makes:

This really kills the visuals in the scenery, and it also seems to be far less intrusive in the LS8-18.

  • Flipping the Master switch causes the canopies to automatically close too, which is jarring during the shut down sequence. I love that they open though! The official aircraft usually have inoperable doors and windows.

  • This pilot avatar doesn’t fit in the cockpit. Head sticks above the canopy, foot is sticking out of the fuselage.

Not sure if it’s just this avatar. It’s like he’s seated too high. This same pilot avatar also causes problems with the T-6 Texan “Almost Perfect”, hands and feet sticking out of the fuselage.

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I wanted to give my feedback too. For background I am a real life competition glider pilot and instructor with a couple of thousand hours, including in the DG 1000 and 1001, although more its predecessor the DG 500.

  • The yaw string behavious weirdly, and makes a bend like no real life one, and which is hard to interpret. So maybe my rudder use is wrong, since I can’t read the yaw string properly. But it seems that not much rudder use is necessary, since there is not much adverse yaw.
  • There seems to be too little adverse yaw
  • The airbrakes are not efficient enough, and the glider changes pitch too much with airbrake use.
  • The ground roll of the take off seems weird. First of all the Cessna tow plane is probably a bit underpowered for the job, as the ground roll is very slow, and it takes a long time until the controls have effect. Many times the tow plane was even unable to complete the tow on a 4000 ft asphalt runway, something which should be plenty with a normal tow plane in real life.
  • In tail dragger sailplanes like the ones we have, you’re supposed to have the stick forward to lift the tail and ballance on the main wheel during ground roll. But the elevator has not enough authority to do that until basically reaching take off speed.
  • In real life tow planes will also stay low in ground effect and build up speed before climbing, and not immediately start climbing steeply like they do in MSFS.
  • Tow in the air is nicely implemented and the sailplane is able to pull the tail of the tow plane around if it get’s too far out of position. And also nice to see the tow plane being affected by the thermals as it is bumped up and down
  • The training lesson says the tow plane will turn left after release, but from my experience it just continues flying straight ahead.
  • I was unable to make the DG 1001 spin properly, more just a steep skidding turn. It should be able to, it spins well in real life
  • I figured maybe the center of gravity was too far forward, so tried to put it farther back to make it easier to spin. That required me to put in 100 lbs of ballast in the tail, which is just ridiculous! I think the real glider has maximum around 20 lbs. But then it also was unflyable, so I guess it was ridiculous in MSFS too, even if according to the weight and ballast page of the setup it was within limits for CoG.
  • The DG 1001 has almost exactly the same instruments as I have in my real life glider, so I know them very well. The LX 9070 (called MFD 9070 in MSFS, but obviously modelled on the LX9070 in real life) is very simplified. So much that it has almost no functionallity. Just a basic map, which can go direct to airports only, but no tasks or waypoints, and no glide calculations. I understand they can’t model the entire LXNav-software, as that is very extensive, but at least some more navigation and glide functionallity would have been helpful.
  • The pilot position in the DG1001 is too far back, so that the canopy bow blocks a lot of the view to the sides. It should be on a level behind your head, where it does not block your view as much.
  • The avionic batteries in the DG1001 runs out after approximately a couple of hours. They should be able to last all day. And since MS modelled a DG 1001 with electric landing gear, when the power runs out, you can’t lower the gear anymore. So I ended up with a belly landing :smiley: The real life glider has a backup option to lower the gear with gravity in cases like this
  • The FES electric engine does not seem to work, it just complains about checking power supply, no matter what position the FES master switch is in.
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Hello @AMGuettler,

Thanks for the excellent and comprehensive feedback. I’ve passed on a link to your post above to our teams for review.

MSFS Team

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OK guys any tips on the ridge liftt training challenge? After several attempts I still can’t manage an A rating even with what I thought was some pretty nifty flying. I can only imagine it’s because the airspeed indicator needle is such a nightmare to read that I must have slipped once too often into the yellow …
I was also expecting to see traffic, did I miss anything?

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If anyone wants to know how to use the engine on the glider:

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This is incorrect. I was able to get the FES to work and a little research would show you several YouTube videos of others that were able to get it to work. This makes me suspicious of all the “bugs” you found. Most likely many are due to user error.

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The FES works for me. However I can confirm all the other “bugs” he found plus a few more. See also my assessment further up.

I think it is not warranted to cast general suspicion on someone, who is clearly qualified, when they give feedback, just because he can’t get a badly modeled FES to work. Rather address his feedback point by point if you disagree or have different observations.

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