A few Lionhearts Kodiak questions!

[Lionheart]

I think my question got buried. :mixedsmi:

Sorry about that NorthTexas,

I have recieved another feedback on that issue also. Many say that most all planes will hold a bank when you turn the yoke and then return it to neutral. I sort of decided I wanted it to return to neutral being a highwing design. My dad who had a ton of flight time always said that a plane that is trimmed out will usually always return to flat out flight and hold a course under normal circumstances, and so thats what I did with the Kodiak.

Now, how I got her to do this, I do not know, as I usually work on many tunes at once in the airfiles, but there is surely a way to tune that setting right back in.

When things cool down (work load wise) I could offer a airfile that has the 'hold bank angle' handling characteristic in it.


Bill
LHC

 

[northtexas]

Sorry about that NorthTexas,

When things cool down (work load wise) I could offer a airfile that has the 'hold bank angle' handling characteristic in it.


Bill
LHC

Thanks Bill...that would be great!

 

[wilycoyote4]

........ I sort of decided I wanted it to return to neutral being a highwing design. My dad who had a ton of flight time always said that a plane that is trimmed out will usually always return to flat out flight and hold a course under normal circumstances, and so thats what I did with the Kodiak..........
Bill LHC

My opinion is that you are correct. I prefer the current air file on this point. Thank you for the sale. It's in my hangar now and I find it very interesting.

 

[Smokey Joe]

My opinion is that you are correct. I prefer the current air file on this point. Thank you for the sale. It's in my hangar now and I find it very interesting.

Yep, I agree. Don't change a thing. I'm over St. Lucia right now at 7,000 ft in the Kodiak, and I have no complaints.

 

[J van E]

Thanks for all the information! Of course I still have a few questions...

Welcome to the Sim Outhouse.

Thanks!

Sorry not to catch your thread earlier today.

No problem at all, of course: it's still christmas!!! And even if it wasn't, I really can be patient!

At takeoff and at landing, you would use 100% condition lever.

So... during flight it apparently stays at 100%...? (Just to be sure... )

I am not familiar with the 'surface prop knob'. Do you mean the Prop Deice by chance?

Yes, well, in MY Kodiak the knob really IS called surface/prop and not prop deice... But I understand how all knobs 'interact'. (And thanks for explaining the bypass system: it's information like that which I really, really love!)

And I fully understand about the manuals and so on: that's always a problem.

Harleyman mentioned you have a new autopilot tutorial and some interesting sticky posts that apparently aren't there anymore (?): where can I get that tutorial and where are those interesting sticky posts?

 

[Lionheart]

Harleyman mentioned you have a new autopilot tutorial and some interesting sticky posts that apparently aren't there anymore (?): where can I get that tutorial and where are those interesting sticky posts?

J van E

Hey J van E,

I think HarleyMan meant the Epic LT, which has a 2nd generation auto pilot that has a voice system now. It had some entire systems fitted into the gauge code as well, so it required all new tutorials in the manual.

The Kodiak's autopilot is the same. It's section on managing it in the manual should be pretty adequate.

As for stickies on the Kodiak, I think that expired. It was the launch Sticky. Thats the only one I know of. It would be extreme to try to go through all 25 or 30 pages of posts to find info you need.

If you have any questions though, please keep them coming. You can also email me personally at william at lionheartcreations dot com.

 

[J van E]

Thanks for the VERY quick answer!

"The Kodiak's autopilot is the same. It's section on managing it in the manual should be pretty adequate."

Er... the same as...? I thought you meant the same as the Epic AP, but I downloaded the Epic manual and it's clearly a different AP. And I only have one page in my Kodiak manual about the AP and it only has some info about how to set things up (HDG and ALT) using the PFD screen but nothing about the S-Tec 5-50 itself...?

But don't worry, I am beginning to understand the AP (specially the VS part) anyway. As usual just spending some time pressing things clarifies a lot. Well, at least I know now that pressing the VS x100 button when ALT is activated sets how much you gain or lose alt per minute while descending or ascending. You can clearly see that on the alt tape on the PFD screen too. The only thing I don't understand is what the VS buttons does... When NAV and ALT are on and I press VS, NAV and ALT turns off... but when I press NAV and ALT again, VS stays on too...? And also, when I decrease to -9, I get -1 instead of -10 and it won't go any further? I suppose that's simply the limit?

But never mind, I know how the most important things work now anyway. I don't want to spoil your second christmas day with all my questions, so feel free to ignore me, haha!

BTW I had a look at a youtube movie of the kodiak and the cockpit is exactly the same as it is in real life. Man, I really LOVE that!

 

[northtexas]

My opinion is that you are correct. I prefer the current air file on this point. Thank you for the sale. It's in my hangar now and I find it very interesting.

I believe Bill was referring to an optional air file.
By the way I just purchased the Epic LT...another excellent airplane.

 

[Lionheart]

"The Kodiak's autopilot is the same. It's section on managing it in the manual should be pretty adequate."

Er... the same as...? I thought you meant the same as the Epic AP

Sorry, I wasnt very clear on that. I meant that the updated version of the Kodiak was the same version AP from its previous version, and that only the Epic LT had had a new version of AP come out. Thus the instructions on the Kodiak were sufficient to get you going on it. The Epic LT has a completely and totally different AP system, which is way wild, if I may add. That one has a voice system call out. The voice of the lady was sent to us by the actual factory. Pretty nice of them to do that.

The Quest Kodiak AP does not have sound, but is a very sufficient AP for that aircraft, basic and rugged and to the point, simple... They use a seperate AP from the optional Garmin G1000 AP system as it saves the purchaser of the aircraft thousands of dollars. You will see this alot these days in most planes that feature the Garmin G1000 or G900 systems.

BTW I had a look at a youtube movie of the kodiak and the cockpit is exactly the same as it is in real life. Man, I really LOVE that!

The pilots of actual Kodiaks said the same thing. I can only say thanks to the guys that supplied me with tons of photos of everything. That is what enabled the interior to really come together well. Without good material to build from like well done sharp photos, you just cannot really get all the details in there.

Thanks to the guys at the factory and their sister training center located nearby for all their help with that.

I hope that helps.

Bill

 

[cheezyflier]

all these many months later, and still much talk of this plane.
has to be some sort of record.

 

[harleyman]

BILL...You Still Da Man....

 

[wilycoyote4]

A lot to learn but very interesting. The bare metal paint of BananaBob. Tongass scenery near Scud River.

 

[J van E]

I've been flying all afternoon with the Kodiak: I just couldn't stop. Hopped from airfield to airfield in FTX/OZx's Queensland and everytime I landed I thought: Ah, one more hop...! It also helps that I am using DX10 since a week or so and I get nice fps even with Extremely dense autogen (apart from big cities but I like trees more!): things are looking absolutely awesome everywhere I look!

 

[Canuck07]

Sorry about that NorthTexas,

I have recieved another feedback on that issue also. Many say that most all planes will hold a bank when you turn the yoke and then return it to neutral. I sort of decided I wanted it to return to neutral being a highwing design. My dad who had a ton of flight time always said that a plane that is trimmed out will usually always return to flat out flight and hold a course under normal circumstances, and so thats what I did with the Kodiak.

Now, how I got her to do this, I do not know, as I usually work on many tunes at once in the airfiles, but there is surely a way to tune that setting right back in.

When things cool down (work load wise) I could offer a airfile that has the 'hold bank angle' handling characteristic in it.


Bill
LHC

Hi Bill, I'm the one who sent you the feedback regarding the Kodiac ailerons. I hope you take the time to make an alternate air file when you have some time because as it is I find it very difficult to fly because it goes against every pilot instinct and habit that I have built in my 24+ years of flying.
Your dad is right that a trimmed airplane will settle back after a bump. Also in pitch contrarily to the MSFS flight model a plane is trimmed for a speed so it will always return to it's attitude and maintain the speed with pwr unchanged. Again contrarily to MSFS pitch controls a/s and pwr controls rate of climb/descent. Our student pilots always struggle with this concept at first, particularily if the spent a lot of time using various sim games. Some readers may argue it's not always true and that is right in the case of big airliners which will usually use pwr on final for speed ctrl, but many large planes are flown differently then the basic skills learned at school.

To get back to the ailerons, a plane without aileron trim will do whatever it wants to do in that axis. A high wing like the Kodiac is usually stable and will return to level after a small bump and a deviation of a few degrees but it will not return to wings level after a significant bank.
In a turn I have never flown a plane that you have to hold the aileron input in 24+ years including the C152, C172, C182, PA28, Seneca, Cougar, C500, C550, T-6A ... to name only a few.

MSFS got this right in their default models.

For the simmers who are happy with it fine, but IMHO it is not realistic and it goes so much against my flying habits that I uninstalled the Kodiac for now... I just can't get used to that. I hope to get an alternate air file to use this beautiful plane in the Tongass scenery, the reason why I bought the Kodiac.

Thanks Bill,

Dan

 

[Lionheart]

Hey Dan,

Thanks for the detailed input. Like I said, I'll try to get an airfile out soon that has that feature built into it.

Its difficult making these as one has to call the shot and at a certain point say its done. There will always be points about a 'simulated' version of a real plane that will not be totally correct or aspects that people will not agree with. Its hard to make a plane that 'everyone' likes. But at least for me, I can certainly try.

:d


Bill

 

[Lionheart]

I didnt think to say this earlier, but you know its pretty easy to go in and do little changes to handling on these planes.

For instance, if you want to increase or decrease aileron gain/input/reaction on a plane, simply open up the 'aircraft.cfg' file with Windows Notepad, scroll down and find the aileron effectiveness and change it from 1 to say 2 or 3, or say 0.5, etc, then reboot the flight and check the handling.

For 'airfile' tuning, Google the program AirED.exe and install that, and open the aircrafts airfile and check out the section 1101 and see how many different tunes you can do to things such as flaps drag amount, flaps pitch effect, various aileron inputs. You can really have a blast playing around with the various settings...


But.....! Remember. Backup your files 'before' you start playing with settings. Messing with the settings can effect other settings. Having an original copy you can go back to will save you every time.

Every since I found out I could make little changes to planes (before I began making them), I was constantly making changes to planes to suit my own wants and desires. There are so many things you can do. Changing the visual point to be higher in the VC, using different lights effects, changing the height of the floats in the water, torque effect from the prop, etc, etc, etc.. Just beware though that some settings really effect others harshly, so have your backup original handy if you go too far and need to take a step back again.



Bill

 

[Canuck07]

Thanks Bill,

I know nothing about designing anything but I will experiment as you suggest. I have been flying for 24+ years and simming since FS5 but I am no expert with computers (unless they are part of my avionics equipment).

I agree it is difficult to make a plane to please everyone so thank you for trying! I used to teach at a school where we had a multi million $ full motion simulator and it still wasn't like the real thing so we can't expect a computer "game" (please don't shoot me for using this word) to be ultra realistic.

I would like to conclude by saying thank you for your kindness and respectfull response to costumer suggestions/ critics. Being a real life professional pilot the only way I can give back to the FS community is by bringing my knowledge of real life flying but some payware designers I gave feedback too take criticism very badly, it is not your case and I enjoy the fact that it stays very civilized and respectfull.

I will re-install the Kodiac and try some settings as you suggest,

Happy New Year to you and your team,

Dan

 

[Lionheart]

Hey Dan,

Most welcome man, and I do hear peoples advice and do my best to integrate it into the planes. Its hard when you are working on two and have several on the market. Things dont always happen overnight, but sometimes they can at least get carried out.

Keep an eye out on the updates section of the Kodiak webpage. When I come out with the update, it will be there. I'll announce it publically as well.

Happy New Years to you and yours as well.


Bill

 

[wilycoyote4]

Thank you Dan, I stand corrected, I'm wiser now. I'll examine this in the Kodiak and other aircraft to educate myself.

 

[J van E]

A few years ago I had no problem editing views for aircraft, but memory has failed me and so has Google... I'd like to delete the console view of the Kodiak and create a co-pilot view instead (the same as the main vc view, but then moved to the right, like you do with Ctrl-Shift-Enter). Anyone knows how to get this done...? I already had a look into the cameras.cfg and the aircraft.cfg, but I can't get it done anymore.