Reliable thrust reverse?....Where?

P

phantomx1

Charter Member
I know this has probably been brought up before. For as long as I have been using first FS 2000, 2002, and now Fs 2004 and having been through 3 or 4 computers including key boards, I have very rarely run across a jet or turbo prop aircraft that has had reliable thrust reverse.

Is it just me or does everyone else have this problem? How to fix it so when you call for good solid thrust reverse you get good solid reliable thrust reverse until you cancel it? Surely there has to be a way to get good, solid, reverse thrust and not the usual, "ok we got it!...no wait it's out!....here comes the ditch!...OK! we got it again!....BLAM!

Anyone know a reliable fix for it? I know some models seem to have access to it better than others, some you are lucky if you get a blip of reverse thrust at all and once in a rare moon there will be a model that the thrust reverse will stay on and you can back the plane all the way down the runway until you add a little throttle.
 
Just for clarification, reverse thrust has nothing to do with the visual model. It is implemented through the flight model (.air and .cfg files).

If implemented there, then it is up to you to ensure that the prerequisites are in place before it can be activated.

1. Aircraft must be on the ground
2. Throttle must be at zero % (Hit F1 to ensure that)

With these requirements met, I have never had an issue.

If the throttle on your controller is not calibrated correctly, then you may not be seeing 0% throttle or a "noisey" controller may kick it up to .01% and inactivate the reverse thrust.

How effective reverse thrust is depends on the settings in the aircraft.cfg or .air file.
The total reverse thrust is generally controlled by this statement:
minimum_reverse_beta=-25.70 (Blade Pitch angle in reverse) and in the .air file, tables 1509, 1511 and 1526 for turboprops. Most critical values in these tables can however be set in the aircraft.cfg file engine and prop settings.

You can play with the values from -25%. Typical is 25%
 
Thanks Milton that is very useful information. I guess I have had not so perfect controller all along, plus it has racked up a lot of hours, and explains why I have been having the problem since the controller I am using I have had for quite a long time and it doesn't like to remain at the minimum throttle position no matter how many times I recalibrate it. I have had this problem even when the controller was brand new. I have recalibrated the controller many times to set it's min/max limits as well as centers.

The throttle will bottom out if I hold F1 but upon release it goes back to a slight high idle.

You mention that one of the requirements is that the throttle must be at 0% before F2 (reverse thrust) will activate. Is there somewhere in FS9 that the, 0% value, can be raised slightly to try coax the F2 key to activate reverse thrust even the throttle is at a high idle throttle setting, or is there no option to get around the 0% requirement?

When the FS9 designers set up the parameters it looks like they could have set the throttle requirement to 1% or 2% and still be able to activate reverse thrust as a buffer against not quite so accurate controllers. I dunno, maybe that is not possible.

I suppose the best option is to get a new controller. Thanks for that excellent operational description Milton.
 
Milton I just got back from recalibrating and as I watched the throttle slider visual color bar as I moved it through it's range, it showed that when I closed the throttle it would bottom out, but when I took my fingers off of the throttle lever the color range bar would increase slightly.

With ever so slightly finger pressure pulling the throttle closed would give me 0% throttle on the color range bar.

I cranked up FS9 and put it to the test on several jets and turbo props that have reverse and while holding the light pressure to hold the throttle closed, I would hit the F2 key just one time and each plane's thrust reverser came on and held without having to constantly punch the F2 key. THIS IS GREAT! Thanks so much!

With the help that you gave me, I now have nice smooth, reliable, reverse thrust operation on every one of the planes. I've never had this before! Not in anyone of the flight sims.

With a lengthy rubber band that provides just a slight return pressure to the throttle arm to ensure a fully closed throttle, I will also be able to continue to get a little more life out of this controller. Wow! This is sure to bring me some better flying experiences and adventures. Thanks very much Milton!
 
I would suggest using FSUIPC in the registered version to calibrate your controller. It is better than the windows default in any case and in this particular case you can simply calibrate a dead zone below which the throttle axis is always zero. Thus eliminating the flutter you seem to have.

And best of all you can do that aircraft specific. For example in our Constellation series the prop reverse action is not activated by pulling the throttles into a negative zone but by a few other means ( prop levers, clicking on the reverse lights etc ) so for them I set the throttle axis to not have a reverse range giving me more axis travel to go from zero to full throttle.

For some other airplanes however I have calibrated the axis so that below a certain point reverse is engaged.

Cheers
Stefan
 
What I do is rather simple:

When I am calibrating my throttle, I start the calibration with it just a *little* off the bottom stop. I use my finger to keep it from going any further down as I "exercise" it during the calibration. Thus the throttle lever never quite reaches the bottom during calibration.

Now in FS when I drop the throttle to the bottom of its travel it easily gets to the real FS 0 point.

Hope this helps,
 
What I do on my X52 is set the brakes to the trigger, then the second detent of the trigger is F2, so I can break on landing, pull a little further on the trigger and Reverse kicks in. All the while the brakes still bite.

I like it that way,
Jamie
 
Thanks for those extra pointers Jamie, tgibson and Stefan, I will most likely be investigating those points of advice. The rubber band on the lever trick isn't working so well.

Man it is so nice to be able to access solid thrust reverse when it is called on.

Thank you all very much!
 
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