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VirtualCol Otter Problem

falcon409

falcon409

Moderator
Staff member
Just wondering if anyone else has a problem with the Turbo Otter when trying to get it to slow down. I reinstalled it yesterday after a long hiatus and also installed the update which I had been told would fix any remaining problems. It did not. On landing I could not get it to drop below 35kts using normal braking. If I set the parking brake, yes, it would finally come to a stop. Also, when parked, if I release the brakes it will instantly start to accelerate til it reaches around 70kts. I had some correspondence with them early on about this and they said they couldn't duplicate it and finally that it was something I had set wrong. . .huh? lol. . .what would there be about my setup that would only effect that airplane?

Anyway, if anyone has a suggestion on how to fix this please chime in. I have written to them again, but I don't really expect any real answer from them other than the previous ones they already offered.
 
Hi Ed,

I'm still new to FSX so not sure if this is applicable, but when I was having this problem with turboprops in FS9 I found a "fix"

In the [propeller] section of the config file edit the "beta_min=" and "minimum_on_ground_beta=" to lower values.

Hope that helps.

PF

edit: As I thought about this some more I remember the "turboprop issue" being discussed in a forum years back and people that knew how to properly fly such aircraft pointed out that pulling back the condition lever or the prop rpm lever (or both) would reduce the excessive thrust produced by flightsim turboprops.

This might be the 'correct' way to deal with this issue if the model has these controls properly implemented.
 
Last edited:
pfflyers said:
Hi Ed,

I'm still new to FSX so not sure if this is applicable, but when I was having this problem with turboprops in FS9 I found a "fix"

In the [propeller] section of the config file edit the "beta_min=" and "minimum_on_ground_beta=" to lower values.

Hope that helps.

PF

edit: As I thought about this some more I remember the "turboprop issue" being discussed in a forum years back and people that knew how to properly fly such aircraft pointed out that pulling back the condition lever or the prop rpm lever (or both) would reduce the excessive thrust produced by flightsim turboprops.

This might be the 'correct' way to deal with this issue if the model has these controls properly implemented.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I did try the second option of reducing both the condition lever and the prop pitch lever and even with both reduced almost to the lowest stop it continues to plod along at about 35kts. It has no affect on it at all apparently, so I'm opting to test your first suggestion and see what that produces.
 
I would have to dig into old fixes, but FSX turboprops are iffy at best...if you have a high idle on the ground and use a switch to reverse thrust, then make your min beta on ground higher than 1.0, such as 7 to 10 making the lowest part of your throttle beta range...going to test it right now though...on the otter




Edit...going to have to mess with it a bit, couldn't get beta range to work properly...have been spoiled by another otter model I have been playing with,
 
There doesn't seem to be any adjustment of prop settings that affects it all. Even swapping numbers to extremes. . .it still rolls along at 35-40kts.
 
Nothing so far from the developer. This bird is parked til I get a fix or she takes over as hangar queen.
 
Just bumping this one time in hopes someone new might spot it before it disappears to another page. Still nothing from the developer which I am not at all surprised by.
 
I have the same problem. This is not one of VirtualCol's best. I tried several times to get a reply and I'm still waiting. If you get an answer before me please PM me and tell me what they said.
 
I could have sworn I had the turboprop working right, but may not have been this one......the only other thing I can think of, is try your prop pitch ranges, and or the propeller thrust level...needs to be lower such as at 1.0 or less and try making min throttle the same as max beta range? Otherwise I am stumped with this one.
 
ksheadley said:
I could have sworn I had the turboprop working right, but may not have been this one......the only other thing I can think of, is try your prop pitch ranges, and or the propeller thrust level...needs to be lower such as at 1.0 or less and try making min throttle the same as max beta range? Otherwise I am stumped with this one.
Click to expand...
Tried everything, I even thought about just commenting out the entire prop section just for grins to see what it would do, lol. My guess it probably wouldn't have any affect on it at all. I don't know enough about tweaking this stuff to get too deep into it, but I do know that changing every line in the prop section. . .even to ridiculous settings never touched it.
 
I've just sent another e-mail. It would seem that the older I get, the shorter my fuse becomes. It's around a 10sec fuse right now, but if they don't answer. . .it could get much shorter.:redfire:
 
I guess if you scream loud enough. . . .immediately got an e-mail back, lol.

Basically the answer was. . . ."we have no idea". Much more to the e-mail than that, but that was the gist of it. They felt the speed problem was corrected with the update they released, but then some people reported it was still a problem while others said it was fixed. Is that even possible? If everyone uses the same airfile and aircraft.cfg wouldn't a "fix". . ."fix it"? Amazing. Anyway. . .I would guess that unless they suddenly have an epiphany, the problem will remain and about the only way to slow down on landing would be to cut the engine after touchdown and slew to a parking ramp.

A shame really as when it was announced they were going to release this bird there was a fair amount of anticipation. Then it was released, folks still talked about what they liked or didn't and then. . . .poof. . .gone. I seem to be the only one bringing up the speed issue (aside from "jamminjames") so unless we were the only two that actually bought it and kept it. . .where is everyone else with the problem of speed both on landing and taxiing. . .did you all just dump it after repeated efforts to fix it. . .did you fix it and if so how. . .or did you just not like the airplane after you bought it and dumped it?

Sorry to go on about this but it is puzzling to me how an airplane that say. . .100 people bought, installed exactly the same way using the installer, all have the same files (airfile and aircraft config file). . .but then just a few have a problem controlling speed? Makes no sense to me.
 
I guess they decided to spend some additional time working on this. I have tested several aircraft.cfg files they sent and this last one was better. It stills creeps after brakes are released (to about 35kts instead of 70kts+). . .and after landing, I was able to actually bring the airplane to a stop on a 6300ft rwy and taxi off. That's an improvement as well because prior to this you couldn't stop the airplane at all (would not slow below 35kts). I have sent him my findings a suggested a few more minor tweaks and I think we might have a workable config file. I don't think it's possible to get it to sit rock steady with the brakes off, but if the taxi speed is controllable I'll be happy with that. The tweaks he's made don't seem to have affected to cruise speed or max speed settings so that's also a good sign.
 
Falcon. I have not been able to replicate the problem you describe so what is causing this I am not sure I have the opposite outcome the aircraft when airborne will not slow down and climbs like a homesick angel which for an Otter with a PT-6 is absurd (how absurd lets say 150 kts plus airspeed and 2000 plus ROC.

The engine instrument layout is stupid. The standard PT-6 gauge installation is always N, Torque, PropRPM. By observation the left hand gauge is the N1 and the second is the Torque, you will now have discovered that there is no propeller RPM gauge, big boo boo. Sloppy panel fit out and finish here.

I think there are issues in the air file coding to begin with. There are two major issues with this sim-model:

The engine data in the aircraft.cfg is incorrect and as a result the performance is ridiculous. I changed all the engine and prop values to correspond to a PT6-27 with a 3 blade reversible prop with no significant improvement or changes to the problems so that wont work.

On the ground the aircraft behaved normally for me but I thought selecting F2 and full reverse then back to F1 seemed to bring the ground speed within believable limits. The airborne behaviour was no different.

A Turbo Otter was better than a Piston Otter but the power merely gave you good load lifting power with good improvements in the ROC, NOTE that airframe design and wing section (these are fat big camber, lifting but low speed wing sections) restricted any major changes in air speeds so it was only marginally faster in the cruise. STOL performance was excellent. This type of wing was common in all transport and general aviation aircraft post WW1 until about the 1950s.

The piston Otter version is fine, the Turbo Otter is a complete dud.

In the end I deleted it from FSX. Shame cause I like the Otter a lot! Happy to stay Piston no issues there.
 
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