Just Flights Duchess Ready for the Aerofly Skies!

Quote from Jetjockey10

GPS is a future update for AFS2. In work but was not ready for initial release. Will be the GNS530 lite in free update.

ALT s/b working to capture present altitude. Captures alt when pressed.

Red flag for HDG and Red flag for NAV. Two different sources.

Good to know a GPS is coming!

After take off and getting at 4000 ft I pressed ALT but the plane kept on climbing. Just now I tried it again and it works... BTW As soon as I turn on the AP the yoke won't work anymore: the current heading but also the current attitude seem to be fixed.

Not here. When I enable HDG I still see the red NAV flag on the HSI. Must be a bug then. See screenshot:

Quote from Fabs79

- during cruise setting throttle from 23 MP to 15 MP has an effect on speed but not on altitude... Shouldn't the plane lose altitude too?

-> the aircraft losing speed without losing altitude could be caused by the autopilot ALT hold mode, have you checked that? If ALT hold is pressed throttling down would slow the plane down while altitude is held because the AP pitch trims up to prevent loss of altitude. Theoretically this could cause a stall if you throttle down too much while the AP forces the plane to fly straight.

- mixture works!

Do you mean it works in a realistic way, that is that you have to lean the mixture above a certain altitude to improve engine effectiveness? Or does it work like in the default Cessna where full rich always leads to best power no matter how high you fly?

Turns out that as soon as you turn on the AP the attitude is being kept: hence the plane not descending. So this is even without any other option on, just AP on.

It works but just a bit. I put myself in various altitudes and the EGT showed a very slightly higher top at lower altitudes and a very slightly lower top up high. In P3D and my A3A planes I had to pull the mixture lever back a lot on higher altitudes: it seems that in AS2 with this plane you can set the mixture levers at one spot which works for all altitudes. Perhaps this has to do with AFS2 not having proper weather...? Anyway, it doesn't work as well I thought it did.

BTW The sound... I hardly hear a difference when I pull the throttle completely back during cruise. You get some sort of extra rumble and that's it. The same goes for the prop lever. It's same sound all the time. When you pull back the prop far enough you don't hear the engine/prop go slower, you hear that engine sound fade out and a (s)lower engine sound fade in. Hard to describe. There seem to be only TWO sounds: one is used for high settings and another for lower. There are no in between sounds. Moving the throttle and prop has no real effect on sound up to a certain point. Doesn't sound real to me. Bit disappointing.

Quote from Jetjockey10

One more time. HDG and NAV are two different functions. The HDG red flag is removed when the Heading function is engaged. The NAV red flag is removed when the Navigation function is engaged. Read this until you understand that one will not affect the other.

I must be very stupid but I don't get it. Well, I get what you are saying but I see the red NAV flag ALL THE TIME on the HSI. So when the AP is off, when the AP is on, when HDG is on and when NAV is on. I ALWAYS have a red NAV flag on the HSI.

Quote from Spit40

Anyone managing to fly in NL. I haven't yet tested if is only with the Duchess but I've been flying in NL a lot and now with the Duchess it crashes.

I've only been flying above TE NL. Works fine, no crashes, although I do get terrible screen tearing near Rotterdam. But I also had that with other planes. (I have vsync on.)

Quote from Overloaded

Is there shocking REALLY LOUD propeller beat if the blue levers are independently slightly moved?

There is no change in sound when any lever is slightly moved. I will have to check tonight but when you go from 2700 RPM to around 1500 RPM you hear no real difference in sound apart from the 'slower engine sound' that gets mixed in with the 'full engine sound'. This is hardly audible though. If you pull the lever even further back you can clearly hear the 'full engine sound' being faded out and the 'slower engine sound' fading in. You don't hear a change in pitch at any time at all! It's a fade out and in of two monotone sounds. When you pull back even further the 'slower engine sound' shows mare variety. But during cruise the sound stays the same no matter what. A slight move certainly doesn't have an effect.

I will have to check tonight at what moment the sound actually changes (may be 2000 instead of 1500) but as I said, it doesn't sound realistic to me. It sounds like a cheap effect. Doesn't come close to anything A2A has done. It's also a shame you can't use your ears to set the mixture but maybe that's normal for a plane like this.

BTW After purchasing the Duchess I posted a few posts on the official JustFlight forum with various questions and a remark about the sound loop bug: no reply yet... That forum seems rather dead and useless. You'd expect at least a few JF-employees to monitor the forum after a release like this...?! Disappointing. All in all this plane didn't give me what I was hoping for... Guess I was hoping for too much. It's a step forward nonetheless, don't get me wrong, and once the the first little errors/bugs have been fixed and we have a good tutorial explaining everything I will probably fly this one a lot: it DOES offer more than any other available GA plane. I also really like the worn look and the fact that the cockpit is an EXACT copy of a real world plane (unlike all other available cockpits in AFS2).

BTW 2 Although the engine sounds are disappointing after flying around for a while the other little sounds are nice and add a lot. The rumble and ticking you hear during take off, the sounds that various knobs and switches make, it really adds something to the experience.

I copied the entire Normal procedures in a handy doubled sided A4 format. See first attachment. I also created a short version, only showing the more mandatory items and leaving out everything you don't really have to do or that simply isn't applicable to this simulated version of the Duchess. (The short version has a line on the back: print it double sided and then cut of the bottom on that line: gives you an even more handy sized list. )

Duchess 76 Normal Procedures.pdf

Duchess 76 Normal Procedures short.pdf

Quote from Spit40

I feel the same. I like to start cold and dark (it seems not every parking spot does trigger this mode, oh and NL airports lack a lot of parking places) and go through the startup procedure. It makes the whole experience more immersive. So i do want this to be my primary aircraft but I would like the sound to improve.

The other thing about cold and dark starts is that it briefly has a started state (cached from previous?) then shuts down.

That's my experience too, that not every spot triggers this mode. Which is one of the reasons my first hour and a half with this plane was a bad experience. (The other reason being the AFS2 beta...). I also hope they finetune the cold and dark state a bit because I think all radio's should be off (so also the COM/NAV 2, ADF and transponder).

It takes a second for the cold and dark state to load so depending on how you left the plane you indeed may get a brief 'started state', which is the default state of every AFS2 plane. I myself always turn off the sound of my PC and don't look at the screen when I want to load the plane cold and dark: that way the immersion isn't spoiled. Luckily the state is loaded quickly: the cold and dark state I made for the Q400 had the engines spinning down for quite a few seconds... I have to say JF did a nice job on this. I remember the state of the Majestic Q400 taking quite a few seconds to load and you could hear and see every switch and knob turn towards that cold and dark state: that was even more immersion killing!

EDIT

Since their forum is useless I send them a support ticket with my various questions. I will keep you all posted. Although it wouldn't be odd if I don't get a reply until after Eastern.