JF Canberra SP3

[Paul K]

Ah, another fun afternoon spent relaxing with flight simulation.

The airspeed indicator continues to behave erratically. Although I no longer have the massive instant changes in speed as before ( and wouldn't I love to know why that decided to fix itself ) I now have jumpy acceleration and deceleration. When speeding up or slowing down, the needle will move a few knots, stop, move a few more, sometimes reverse direction a knot, then carry on a few more knots, pause again, carry on...and on.

Instrument panel selector - the big white arrow upper left - I click on that, nothing happens. I select it in the drop down menu, nothing happens. I bring up any of the pop-up panels using Shift+(number) - they appear but are unclickable, even though the cursor changes shape over switches and buttons.

Sitting on the ground, having just selected the aircraft, stood still with the brakes on and throttles closed - the airspeed indicator advises me I'm doing forty knots.

I'm going to uninstall, reinstall, and if that doesn't help, I'll just try another uninstall.

[DaveB]

Hmm.. something is certainly amiss my friend. Hopefully.. the uninstall/re-install will do it for you. Keep us up to speed

ATB
DaveB

[Paul K]

Hi Dave,

Un/Re-install didn't fix anything, but Martyn at JF is going to have a look at it tomorrow. Mr Garwood has P3Dv3 - I wonder if he's having the same problems ? The 40 knots airspeed at standstill is a bit weird, eh.

I hope these issues get sorted, because I was panning round the Canberra, both inside and out, and my goodness, what a beauty it is. A real work of art by JF.

[DaveG]

Hi Paul, yep, it's showing 40kts for me too. Same in both FSX and P3dv3.
I see on the JF forum you posted about the panel selector arrow not working. There is a known issue with P3dv3 where clickspots don't work sometimes if you swap aircraft. Seems it's best to boot to the startup selection screen first, then pick Canberra (or other) and load, rather than loading a default aircraft first unlike FSX.

[DaveB]

I see the ASI at 40kts too but.. I'm thinking it should be that way anyway so it's never bothered me. Some ASI's don't normally start to register until around 40kts and this one comes 'live' at and beyond that.

ATB
DaveB

[Paul K]

Hi Paul, yep, it's showing 40kts for me too. Same in both FSX and P3dv3.
I see on the JF forum you posted about the panel selector arrow not working. There is a known issue with P3dv3 where clickspots don't work sometimes if you swap aircraft. Seems it's best to boot to the startup selection screen first, then pick Canberra (or other) and load, rather than loading a default aircraft first unlike FSX.

Dave G - Now that rings a bell, Dave. I was having problems with clickspots in the PMDG 737 NGX, and found something in the manual to the effect that the aircraft has to be chosen at startup, rather than selected once in the sim. Could be the same problem - can't check it now, but I'll amend my post on the JF forum.

I see the ASI at 40kts too but.. I'm thinking it should be that way anyway so it's never bothered me. Some ASI's don't normally start to register until around 40kts and this one comes 'live' at and beyond that.

Dave B, thanks - Paul Frimston ( Delta558) confirms what you say. I've amended my JF post to reflect that too.

Thank you gentlemen, as ever. I now just need to get an answer to the erratic airspeed needle. Dave G, if you get a chance, could you have a look and see what you think ? Is it turbulence that causes it ( and if so, why doesn't that turbulence equally affect the altitude or rate of ascent/descent- they don't seem to jump around as much as the ASI does )

[DaveB]

Paul..

I flew it half way to Wales this afternoon to check the ASI but I had no weather turned on. I'll run her again now with ASN (on my brand spanking new 21" monitor) to sees what happens

Glad the ASI 40kts readout was as I'd guessed. I remember back when we did the last taxi on the Vanguard, the old boys forgot to take the pitot covers off but as we later discussed.. she'd never have gone fast enough to have made the ASI active. 40kts plus was never on the cards
ATB
DaveB

[DaveB]

Okey doh matey

Just taken her from Culdrose to nowhere in particular. The aim was Valley but I was having so much fun, I let her go and go Takeoff from Culdrose never hinted at an 83kt wind from 233 at FL208 but that's what I found when I got there. The ASI was pretty much rock steady.. just a very small 'wag'.. less than a knot for the most part and considering the weather.. I was more than happy. Approaching the southern edge of the Welsh mountains before Valley, I hit some quite heavy turbulence. The poor girl shook her head a bit while hanging on to the AP (hardly surprising) and during this period.. I was seeing a variation of up to 5kts on the ASI. Again, hardly surprising given the winds had increased to +90kts and all completely expected.

In FSX at least.. no real issues to report. The engines were (or went) cold again on first load but hey.. it's not a difficult girl to get going if you know what buttons to push
ATB
DaveB

[DaveG]

My brief flight last night didn't show any fluctuations with the ASI, although I wasn't using real weather at the time. I'll try again tonight with RW. There did seem to be a very slight hesitation with the needle approx every second, but I probably wouldn't have noticed it unless I was looking for something out of place.

[Paul K]

Dave B, Dave G - thanks for your observations. I'm going to spend a bit more time with the Canberra, and see if I can pin down when the large fluctuations happen. It may have been turbulence that was causing the instantaneous 15 knot speed variations, but I still don't think that is as it should be. I would have had whiplash injuries if it had been real. Admittedly, my experience of turbulence is confined to airliners, and I don't see the effects on the ASI up front, but it seems to me that while the aircraft bounces up and down, the speed doesn't vary that much. A sudden deceleration would have me head-butting the seat in front one second, and pressed back into my own the next. I've never know that to happen in the real world - just up and down. Am I making sense ?

After turning the weather off completely, and turning off gusts and turbulence in FSUIPC, the large fluctuations disappeared, but I was still getting small step changes in speed ( about 1 to 3 knots ), rather than smooth movement. Sounds a small thing but as you say, Dave G, once you look for it, you see it, and you can't 'un-notice' it from there on. I've never seen the ASI needle do that in any other model.

At least I've got my Panel Selector and 40-knot speed problem sorted - very pleased about that.