Thank you for your assessment. Welp, I think I look into Axis and Ohs if I find anything that makes it less of a pain in the tailplane to get that right. I have had a key bound to the nav source cycle but I had to apply it for times or so for the plane to react, I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes there. A shame that after almost 4 years we still have to do headstands for the most basic functionalities.
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Hello
I am flying the Tutorial #2 and experiencing a peculiar problem that I am sure someone can help with.
As you may know the Tutorial flight comprises an IFR/VOR southerly arrival to CYVR (Vancouver). Not all of the VORs described in the Tutorial remain, but YVR remains and can be used to trigger a westerly turn some 10 miles before the airfield, and fly outbound for 10 miles, loop back onto course 083 for an ILS approach on RW08R. This is approximately the route described by the tutorial and all is good so far.
But, if I attempt a ‘real world’ approach using the Navigraph Charts I am required to fly outbound along the RW08R localiser, loop around and return along the localiser to land on RW08R.
I am still experimenting, but it seems to me that once I pick up the localiser on my outbound leg the AFE mutters something unintelligible, starts throwing switches and I end up in the sea.
I have disabled the real life engine damage and carb icing in both cases so I am pretty sure it is the AFE misbehaving. (I was wondering whether it was anything to do with long approach at 3000 ft on low power causing the problem but I don’t think it is).
Has anyone else experienced something similar? Would it be okay to abort the AFE for the outward leg and switch him back on for the final approach?
That is odd.
The AFE usually runs a scripted set of actions upon flipping one of the switches on the EFB.
Are you doing that as a part of the tutorial? (I’ve not run the tutorial, so I’m at a disadvantage here about its specifics. I have read it, though.)
When you’ve activated the AFE “Before Landing”, you will be given control of the throttles and flaps. If you’re using a peripheral for throttles and/or flaps it might be reducing the throttles or altering the flaps to something undesired when control is handed over to you. You need to ensure you’re maintaining airspeed and if you aren’t applying power, and/or your flaps settings have changed unbeknownst to you, you’re going to be in trouble.
The AFE will otherwise do little to nothing during these phases of flight. He may adjust carb heat, but I believe that would be the only thing.
EDIT:
As an aside, one of the issues I had the most trouble with when learning the DC-6 was my approach. I had established a horrible habit of flying it way too slowly, dipping a wing and, well, you know the rest – poof!
The tutorial videos made such an ordeal about slowing the aircraft and not cutting throttles so as to preserve the engines, that, in my inexperience, I was totally overdoing my slow down and what not.
In essence, keep that airspeed up! Go by the placard on the overhead panel for weight/flap/approach speeds.
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Thank you for your help.
I think you are correct: I may have been switching to “Before Landing” too early and throttling back too much and not noticing the BMEP was decreasing.
I am pleased to say that I have just completed a “real word” ILS approach using the Jepperson chart without incident (although I did overshoot the localiser a bit ). I am like a dog with two tails this evening.
So, I don’t have to fire the AFE after all!
Many thanks once again.
Mike
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Hi, when you activate ‘Before Landing’ throttle and flap control is handed back to you. Until you’re descending (on the glideslope if available) down to the runway, you may have to stay at 30deg flaps and apply more power in order to maintain airspeed.
In terms of engine damage, you need to manually maintain at least 61 BMEP in order to ensure that the engines aren’t being driven by the propellers (think of changing into first gear in a car when travelling at 50mph/80kph). If you don’t maintain the BMEP it puts pressure on the bearings in the engine and seriously damages or destroys them!
p.s. I just noticed that @NixonRedgrave quite rightly mentioned about the flaps and throttle handover in his post, I missed that when I skim read through it 
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Many thanks to everyone - this aircraft certainly takes some understanding which greatly adds to its enjoyment.
Fingers crossed that I am on the road to perfoming error free approaches and landings. So far so good 
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Hello again
I am not sure whether this is relevant to your discussion on the Bendix radios, but I am having a tough time with them when flying VOR / VORTAG routes (which are my favourite around Alaska).
The radios tune to the various frequencies okay and the needles in the Bendix HSI indicator do what they should do. If I manually ‘fly the needles’ on gyropilot or manually everything is fine.
But I find that switching from Gyro Pilot to Localizer on the Sperry switch is very hit and miss - sometimes the aircraft finds the course and settles down; sometimes it ignores the course; sometimes it banks away from the course with no intention of finding it, and sometimes it finds the course but stops following it and drifts off after a while (20 minutes or so). Resetting the ‘autopilot’ sometimes fixes the problem for a while.
Does this ‘chime’ with your experience or am I doing something wrong?
I look forward to any thoughts that you may have.
Many thanks
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I seem to remember VOR range using the default navdata is quite poor ( with navigraph data it might be a bit too good 
) , but you’d notice the loss of signal I guess. In my experience it either works - presuming I’m not terribly far off my radial to start with, if I’m at a very large angle or too far away then no it won’t necessarily lock it but neither do a lot of aircraft - or doesn’t & I have to turn the GPS on to reset the nav source.
First.
Have you tried, via the EFB, toggling the Bendix radios back to the GNS and then cycling the CDI a couple of times, leaving it on VLOC and then toggling the Bendix back on?
If you have not done this, do so and retest. That is 99% of my issues with the Bendix radios and the Gyropilot tracking VOR correctly.
Let me reiterate that even if the GNS shows VLOC already, toggle it to GPS and back to VLOC again.
Try those steps and if you’re still having issues let’s delve further.
Also, ensure you’re not too far off course when you’re engaging Localizer mode or the Gyropilot might struggle to maintain a significant turn or it won’t pick up the VOR at all. In other words, check that you’re seeing active deflection needle movement on the CDI, to be sure.
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Hi
I have tried a couple of flights from McGrath to Pitka and I am pretty certain you have identified the solution.
After a few minutes into the flight I sensed that I was not following the localiser even though I was receiving a signal. Reselecting a new radial to the GAL VOR seemed to confirm this - no response. (I have noticed that it is best to switch back to ‘gyro pilot’ from ‘localiser’ before making any adjustments).
Following your toggle procedure with the GNS cured the problem for the rest of the flight.
Am I right in reading earlier that PMDG are aware of this?
Thanks once again.
Mike
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That is definitely the right approach when changing VOR frequencies and is the correct thing to do when in the “cone of silence” (aka “cone of confusion”) — that point when you’re directly over a VOR and the radio signal ceases to be able to be received. As you know, switching to “Gyropilot” is akin to putting a conventional autopilot in Heading mode.
I haven’t, officially, posted a bug report about it to them, but I have mentioned it on their forum. I know there are some issues with “hot swapping” the GNS that have come about due to SU14; the fix for which is due to come with SU15. I was holding on reporting it until that point, as I know little can (will?) be done until the fix is implemented with SU15. (The issue is also affecting the autopilot in the Just Flight arrows, too, and their support said they need SU15’s fix before they can address it.)
Incidentally, the switching to the GNS and cycling the CDI is something that can be done straight away when entering the cockpit and should only be necessary do that one time for the duration of the flight.
You’re welcome and I’m happy to help!
Here in California we had experienced the brunt of a massive storm yesterday and I was so looking forward to flying the DC-6 out of KOAK in the midst of the weather intensity. The winds were so strong I had to feather all four props whilst sitting on the tarmac to keep them from windmilling!
Then the power went out for the entirety of the day. Bah!
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The real reason the DC6 and not the Sevens or the Connies persist is the relative rugged simplicity of the R2800 CB-16 and -17. Best darn Aero Engine ever built. Many friends who flew them and FE’d on them. Still flying daily out of Anchorage and Fairbanks and often seen flying over the house.
Just got the six last night and it’s a fun flyer.
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Congratulations and, for sure, it is one of the best aircraft in the sim!
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LOL - the engines may have rugged simplicity, but I seem to wear them out after five hours or so. 
I must revise the tutorials pay more attention to my engine management.
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For those that will never use the Garmin in this plane, removing it from the panel.cfg (pmdg-aircraft-dc6\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG DC-6A\panel) so that it doesn’t ever load will solve all your AP related issues. This would be the the [VCockpit08] section at the end of the file.
Alternatively, if you DO use the GPS, change the GPSdrivesNAV1 (pmdg-aircraft-dc6\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG DC-6A) line in each FLT file to True. This should fix the issue to toggle back and forth, though other AP issues may still happen.
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They have been for well over a year.
I’ll have to try removing the garmin entirely, thats a nice idea.
Tried the above, didn’t work for me.
Can anyone provide tips for flying low and slow for Approaches? Did I read that a staged descent (as shown on the charts e.g Unalakleet PAUN) is not recommended and that I should fly more or less ‘straight in’?
Mike
Best advice is to make gradual changes, give yourself and the 6 plenty of time to settle into each change. Especially when it comes to changing power settings. You can end up chasing airspeed 3 times before it’s actually settled into the airspeed it was going to be at with the first change.