The A2A Simulations Community

Wouldn't it be great if the A2A team a makes the Cessna Grand Caravan EX G1000
for FSX, fSX-steam, and P3D? what do you guys think?

Well... it has a PT6A, which would be challenging (there is another topic here about what it is about the PT6A that makes it hard to accu-sim). It has a glass cockpit, which is also challenging. It's also likely to result in things thrown at the suggester by the natives...

For me personally, I really don't like the Garmin G1000 or similar layouts. The 737 MAX and some business jets have this TV screen looking display I just don't like. IDK, I like a mix of steam/analog and glass. Like the older jets had way too much gauge activity. L1011, DC-10, 727 are beautiful jets, but too many gauges. I just don't like the all glass look of the Garmin. The colors are very ugly for one.

At the end of the day, I am hopeful for a twin. I want something faster and high flying for FSX (P3D not excluded). A2A make such amazing planes, but I'm not a war bird guy and want a fast high flying civilian plane. Even a Piper Meridian (non-twin) would be awesome.

I do hope A2A can Accu-Sim a turbo prop one day because there really aren't any good single engine turbo props for any simulator.


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hmm, i never knew the PT6A-140 would be so difficult to Accusim. i know its a turbo-prop and fuel measuring and other stuffs would be different from the regular pistons engine A2A is used to, but it doesn't matters, A2A still makes the best planes there is for simulation, regardless of what aircraft they choose.

And for the Garmin 1000, well its just an upgrade, the C208 also comes with analogue gauges (which is my preferred version)


here take a look at how beautiful the analogue version looks.





here's the other half of the cockpit,






I took the picture while doing a post flight inspection on a Cessna 208B (PT6A-114). its been a week since iv'd starting working as an Apprentice Aircraft Maintenance Engineer.



oh and here's the PT6A-114, a real beauty isn't she?

A good "small" turboprop simulation is indeed something I find missing from the FSX/P3D world. Of course, it would be a big task, certainly requiring that the power plant mechanics were worked bottom-up, and if one goes on listing all the control and governing functions in a PT6, bringing them all into a sim would likely a huge task because many of the functions are actually some one runs into in regular operations.

-Esa

It's exactly the kind of task for Accu-sim to tackle though, I think...

chadryan wrote:I do hope A2A can Accu-Sim a turbo prop one day because there really aren't any good single engine turbo props for any simulator.


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A big part of the turbo-prop equation as relates to them not being as realistic as they could be for desktop simulation has been the availability of a high end 6 axis throttle with realistic beta range, feather, and Idle Cut Off.
Virtual-Fly with their TQ6 has changed all that.
I'm testing one now and it is absolutely amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dudley Henriques

DHenriquesA2A wrote:Virtual-Fly with their TQ6 has changed all that.
I'm testing one now and it is absolutely amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dudley Henriques

Wow, I didn't know about this one at all! Seems pretty cool.

And on your point, indeed it would be absolutely essential to have some kind of solution on mapping the detends in the real power levers somehow when creating a turboprop simulation for controllers that lack such. If I had to create one scheme, say, for that PT6A with ground fine gate in place, I would make it such that the power lever angle would be 1:1 to the controller's %, but so that the settings below an applicable detend position would be ignored unless a button was pressed.

For a regular application, I'd define it so that one had to have a button pressed to allow the simulation power lever to follow the controller over a stop going rearwards.

At high airspeeds, which would include all the regular flying speeds, settings below the flight idle gate would be ignored, with the simulated levers remaining at the gate, unless the button was pressed.

At low airspeeds, the allowable range would be up from the ground fine gate, where installed. Application of reverse would still need a press.

This would, of course, still be a hard compromise, and the controller use would be quite different from the real airplane.

-Esa

AKar wrote:

DHenriquesA2A wrote:Virtual-Fly with their TQ6 has changed all that.
I'm testing one now and it is absolutely amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dudley Henriques

Wow, I didn't know about this one at all! Seems pretty cool.

And on your point, indeed it would be absolutely essential to have some kind of solution on mapping the detends in the real power levers somehow when creating a turboprop simulation for controllers that lack such. If I had to create one scheme, say, for that PT6A with ground fine gate in place, I would make it such that the power lever angle would be 1:1 to the controller's %, but so that the settings below an applicable detend position would be ignored unless a button was pressed.

For a regular application, I'd define it so that one had to have a button pressed to allow the simulation power lever to follow the controller over a stop going rearwards.

At high airspeeds, which would include all the regular flying speeds, settings below the flight idle gate would be ignored, with the simulated levers remaining at the gate, unless the button was pressed.

At low airspeeds, the allowable range would be up from the ground fine gate, where installed. Application of reverse would still need a press.

This would, of course, still be a hard compromise, and the controller use would be quite different from the real airplane.

-Esa

I've been using the TQ6 now for several weeks. It's the best piece of hardware I've ever seen in a controller. I'm in contact with the company almost daily. They are even working on a driver that will make the throttle specifically compatible with A2A aircraft. This thing is impressive! Just using the Windows driver with calibration in Windows the range of the levers is impressive. It's smooth as glass; closest to real as I've seen. I love this thing! It works perfectly as a single engine throttle as well.
Virtual-Fly is a high end company and their hardware plays to the serious simmer but for the serious simmer I've never seen anything even close to this quality and performance.
Dudley Henriques

Surely need to follow this one. As I do have a sweet spot for the C-model Hornet, my next controller purchase will likely be the TM's stick for it after the DCS Hornet coming out some year, and then the MFG pedals, but these seem to be quite cool stuff as well, certainly going into consideration if I ever can allocate more sim hours to justify the cost.

-Esa

DHenriquesA2A wrote: They are even working on a driver that will make the throttle specifically compatible with A2A aircraft.
Dudley Henriques

Now this is something I like to hear. This sounds like something is in the works..........

DHenriquesA2A wrote:

chadryan wrote:I do hope A2A can Accu-Sim a turbo prop one day because there really aren't any good single engine turbo props for any simulator.


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A big part of the turbo-prop equation as relates to them not being as realistic as they could be for desktop simulation has been the availability of a high end 6 axis throttle with realistic beta range, feather, and Idle Cut Off.
Virtual-Fly with their TQ6 has changed all that.
I'm testing one now and it is absolutely amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dudley Henriques

That looks amazing! Now all I have to do is convince my wife I need a throttle quadrant that costs almost $800 Canadian dollars


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An accu-simmed Cessna Caravan would be absolutely amazing!! If there is only 1 GA plane I would wish in really good quality it's the Grand Caravan!! (and in this sentence the existing two by a developer that starts with a C and ends with arenado don't count as "really good quality" for me!). However I would also clearly prefer the steam gauges instead of the G1000. Might be fine in reality, but hard to handle in the sim. Apart from that you could include the excellent 3rd party GPS as done in the pictures above in reality.

Just a suggestion for the problem with the throttles: What about including click sounds for the notches that would be necessary because of the lack of physical notches in most joysticks?? Aerosoft did this for their Airbus and Majestic for their Dash 8-Q400 (which is btw the best turboprop simulation I know). And these are very good to handle.

The TQ6 is a fine throttle for sure, but spending another 500++ Euros for FS hardware is a no-go for me, and certainly also for many others.

I know majestic uses a completely separate program for flight dynamics on the q400. I wonder how their version is compared to the real thing? If it is spot on then perhaps we could get an A2A/majestic collaboration? Seems logical. Sure they would split the profits but working together would allow them to produce twice as many products....