Transition to Beta
-
Looking forward to the release tomorrow! I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos on it and it looks great as always. However I am wondering about one thing. The transition from idle to beta seems to be too sudden and sharp. I feel like it should be a smoother, slightly slower transition. Anyone else feel this way?
-
Yeah, I noticed that too in a few preview videos. It seems like the RPM is dropping from 1800 to 800 within a second of activating beta/reverse.
-
I came here just to comment on this. I have several hundred hours of flying the Caravan and my favorite thing to do was taxi around and bump in/out of Beta just for pure enjoyment of my ears. With the initial videos I'm seeing, the pre-release Beta sounds very....laxadasical. Its too low in pitch/speed. while I don't recall the RPM drop, I don't think it matches very well. Something sounds off to my ear.
Still very much buying this ASAP, but I hope Nick can dig a bit deeper on this.
-
We've made some significant changes in this department before the final release version. I still can't promise that it's exactly what you're looking for, but I always try me best. It's also easy to forget after so many of my aircraft using the same system that MSFS has no actual support for beta range, so everything you see and hear is me bending the propeller simulation to our will. That's why you see the small decrease in propeller RPM instead of an increase in all my aircraft. I could apply yet another patch onto the propeller simulation to achieve that, but too many of those become "scary" from a software reliability sense, if you know what I mean.
-
Cheers, Nick! You're doing amazing work after the Starship and a Caravan? Beyond pleased so far. Here's to hoping a Cheyenne is in your lineup
-
The prop drops to 450 RPM during beta use in high idle, I don't think that behavior is correct (it also significantly differs from your other PT6 products)
-
We've made some significant changes in this department before the final release version. I still can't promise that it's exactly what you're looking for, but I always try me best. It's also easy to forget after so many of my aircraft using the same system that MSFS has no actual support for beta range, so everything you see and hear is me bending the propeller simulation to our will. That's why you see the small decrease in propeller RPM instead of an increase in all my aircraft. I could apply yet another patch onto the propeller simulation to achieve that, but too many of those become "scary" from a software reliability sense, if you know what I mean.
@Black-Square Yeah, agree with @Outermarker . Beta behavior was pretty good in the Turbine Duke, Starship, and Turbine Bonanza, but it's something else now in the Caravan. 3-blade props do sound pretty different in my experience of watching all kinds of different aircraft taxi past the GA airport tower where I work (also flew King Airs in a different life). 3-blade turboprops are much quieter at idle, but they still have similar effects when in beta/reverse.
Back to the caravan, if you go to high idle and just barely crack into your beta range, I imagine that is where the parameters and sound be normally at low idle IRL. However as soon as you pass that increment, the prop RPM just dives (same as it does in low idle), plus NP goes low enough to trip the "STBY ALT" annunciation every time.
-
I rewatched the livestream where I first noticed this happening. As soon as he enters beta after landing, the RPM drops, and confused by the sound, he looks down at the pedestal and sees the RPM lever in the feathered position. Even though in the release version the physical prop lever no longer visibly moves, I assume that’s still what’s happening under the hood: the prop is going fully into feather. This would also explain why it currently takes so long to exit beta/reverse, since the prop needs time to unfeather.
