I Really Want to Like This Plane But...

[zazaboeing]

Scott:

I was quite offended by your insulting response. Shuttlecock's in your court. BTW A2A has lost any future sales from me.

Chill buddy!! He didn't say ANYTHING insulting, why all this rage?
As a real pilot and sim lover since the early days of sims, I can't point ANYTHING that even approaches the way A2A airplane handles, while compared to the real ones. Maybe in your case it's just a case of controllers settings and getting used to them.

Hope you can solve it!

[Ike Kant]

Update: I tried flying the 172 again today for the first time in a few weeks. This time I used a brand new CH Products Combatstick. I bought this controller because I fly Travelair and Gt. Lakes biplanes and the Tecnam Eaglet and Sierra. All of which use a stick in real life. The result was a success in terms of straight and level cruise stability. I no longer experienced roll except for very insignificant compensation due to fuel and passenger loading. My CH Products Yoke will simply not perform with this A/C. That's a shame because the real 172 has a yoke. I must be missing something with the yoke. I still think the plane overreacts to controller inputs. Once again, I may be missing something in the setup.

I still have a sound problem. In cockpit view the aircraft sounds only come through the speakers in my HD TV monitor but the environmental sounds (wheels screeching on touchdown etc.) come through my D/C headsets which are connected to the sound output at the back of my PC. In chase view I do get aircraft sounds in the headsets but not when switching back to cockpit view. I prefer authentic headsets for realism and also because my TrackIR reflector is mounted on them. My PC seems more confused than I am if that is possible.

My sincere apologies to the good folks at A2A for inappropriately blaming them for my controller problem. Still, I would like to see a fix or remedy for the CH Products Yoke (and the sound mix-up and controller sensitivities). I think it is safe to assume there are many users of that yoke out there.

P.S. Zazaboeing: I was merely expressing moderate indignation. The only rage exhibited here was that which you yourself projected.

[alan CXA651]

Hi.
I have a CH yoke/rudder peddles and 2 quad throttles , and i first flew this aircraft , with the controls set up in FSX as per recommended A2A settings , once i got a feel of the controls , i then set it up in FSUIPC , and adjusted the slope to get the same feel , and i find the control of this aircraft to be fine , with no problems at all.
All i can say is , you must be setting it up a bit to fine , once you have it set up correctly , and get used to your new stick , you will find this aircraft to be a great little aircraft .
Regards alan.

[Lewis - A2A]

Sounds like you may have an issue in your yoke configuration or that its a little kaputt as the CH yoke is the one we recommend and use when at the booth at Oshkosh and exhibting. For your sound that's an easy one, it just sounds like you default sound device is set to the TV and the Accu-sim sounds will play through your default system device.

thanks,
Lewis

[Ike Kant]

Alan: I am using P3D V3.1 not FSX. I don't have FSUIPC and don't know if it would work with my platform. The center position on the Combatstick is much more secure due to better springing. The yokes have an indefinite center position. Maybe that contributes to my problem. The yoke on my P3D system is brand new. I got it because it has an extra programmable button. I am hesitant to change the control sensitivities or rely on FSUIPC because most of my favorite A/C are fine the way I have it set. Too bad P3D doesn't allow you to save individual control sensitivity settings.

Lewis: My sound preferences (both Primary Playback Device and Voice Playback Device) in P3D are set to Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio). In this setting I get A/C engine sounds in the headphones in all but the cockpit view. The only sounds in the headphones in cockpit view are environmental such as wheels on landing and taxiway roll out. In all other settings (see below) the sound in all views comes through the TV speakers only. My choices in the P3D sound settings include:

1. Default Primary Playback Device
2. Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
3. Samsung-4 (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)
4. Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)

Sorry to be such a pain in the lower region but I am ever so slowly getting closer to realizing the full potential of the A2A 172R. There is still an engine start problem and I really did run the update. Thank you for all of the helpful suggestions.

[Oracle427]

What are your Windows default sound devices configured as? The A2A engine has a function that introduces sound outside of the simulator's control. As a result the sound defaults within the simulator do not control all the sound channels for A2A aircraft.

What sort of engine start issue are you having? The A2A aircraft has a realistic start procedure for a fuel injected 172 and it is sensitive to under/over priming, as well as throttle position and how quickly one feeds in the mixture when the engine catches.

Also one needs to make sure that the fuel cutoff isn't pulled.

[Ike Kant]

Oracle:

When I first got my new computer (and shortly thereafter, the 172) I worked with my wife (lots of experience there) to get the Windows default sound settings to work with P3Dv3.1. It works perfectly with all of my other planes but not the 172. If I make it work for the 172 then it won't work for my other planes. I could just skip using the earphones altogether and wear the hat mounted TrackIR reflector.

The engine always seems flooded even with thin wire plugs, a check with the maintenance hanger, different throttle settings and duration of priming. It will start with the throttle fire walled.

[Lewis - A2A]

All you need do is switch your default sound device around. At present you have it set to what you don't want it to be.

thanks,
Lewis

[Oracle427]

I always switch my default sound devices before every flight because I don't wear my headsets on my machine when I'm not simming.

It takes about 10 seconds tops and about 3 clicks.

As for flooding, I never had that problem. I prime for 5 seconds with the throttle open to 25%. Then I set the mixture to lean cutoff, kill the fuel pump, crank for a few revolutions when the engine makes the sound indicating it is firing and then I throw in full mixture immediately. Usually, when I have trouble I find it needs a bit more primer if I have any trouble, just like the real one.

[Ike Kant]

I always switch my default sound devices before every flight because I don't wear my headsets on my machine when I'm not simming.

It takes about 10 seconds tops and about 3 clicks.

As for flooding, I never had that problem. I prime for 5 seconds with the throttle open to 25%. Then I set the mixture to lean cutoff, kill the fuel pump, crank for a few revolutions when the engine makes the sound indicating it is firing and then I throw in full mixture immediately. Usually, when I have trouble I find it needs a bit more primer if I have any trouble, just like the real one.

Revelation! I'm embarrassed far beyond words. I was so focused on shutting off the mixture control during start up (which seemed counter intuitive for an old carb person like myself) that it was the first thing I did before running the fuel pump. I thought that somehow the fuel pump bypassed the mixture control in this instance. After carefully reading the above sequence I ran the fuel pump with the mixture control fire walled then shut both off. The plane fired up like a homesick angel. The sound of that engine was heavenly music. Again my apologies to the good folks at A2A who now can say they've seen it all.

That just leaves the yoke problem and I'll have this thing in the bag.

[speedy70]

Hi Ike
It is good to hear you are slowly correcting things and everything is coming together.This is a very friendly forum and everybody pitches in to help.

The people that have helped you are doing it out of the kindness of their heart as we all do on this forum.

Only Scott and Lewis are A2A the rest of us are members.

It is very disappointing to us when the products are knocked because we know they are the best on flightsim and the

faults are always on the person complaining.

Let me give you a prime example or two.

People buy the product but inspite of being told ,do not run the updater.

P3D users do not rerun the simmconnect when it fails.

Anyhow all I am trying to say is that we are all very friendly here and you should try to be the same.

Harp builder eh.That must be difficult.

Cheers Chris

[Oracle427]

Ike,

This must be done before launching the flight simulator.

You can just right click on the speaker icon on your task tray and select Playback devices (1st click)
Then right click on your desired default playback device and click (select default device) (2nd click)
Then close the menu (3rd clock)

Take note of the green checkbox next to your default sound playback device as you flip back and forth between settings.

Glad I could sort you out with the fuel injected startup. Haven't learned to fly in the last decade, I had to acclimate myself to an O-360 equipped 172 and accept that it was normal to leave the mixture full in for the start.

Have fun!

[Molly - A2A]

It's like three clicks of the mouse to change the default sound device. Go to Control Panel -> Sound -> Click the desired device -> Click "Set Default."

Most people just use the typical method of all sounds coming through one sound device so they don't typically run into this "issue," but I've seen it pop up a few times in the forums here now from others like yourself who like the real headset for radio coms/ATC. Seems like it might be a nice addition for A2A to add a selector in the Aircraft Config Tool or something to choose the playback device for the custom Accusim sounds, or maybe even have the tool inspect the FSX/P3D CFG file for which playback device is selected and use that by default, instead of the system default.

Alternatively you might like to know that you can also click a "headset" button in the shift-3 pop up window in the 172 that mutes the engine sounds a bit similar to the effect of putting an actual headset on. It's not exactly what you're looking for but you might want to try it.

[Ike Kant]

I am truly grateful to those who have helped me work my way through this with constructive technical advice.

Pacem