A few comments -- Registration Font, EDM-800 DIF temp, temperature readings, GPS vs NAV heading

[stedanko]

My first Black Square purchase and have been loving flying this around, I'm sure it won't be my last. After a dozen or so hours in the air trying to explore just about every aspect of the plane, have a few comments/questions/feedback. I'm no IRL pilot so take it as you may.

1. Noticing that on all liveries, the pilot side font of the registration on the body seems to be in a bold font while the passenger side is not.

2. On the EDM-800, I can't correlate the difference temperature to any other numbers. My understanding is that it should be the CHT difference between the hottest and coolest cylinders, but it never seems to line up. In fact, once I'm at cruise I've been noticing its almost always reading 66F.

3. The reading from the overhead thermometer seems to always be 2-4 degrees hotter than the OAT reading on the tablet and the cabin temperature reading on the center console.

4. If the GPS/NAV radio are both set to the same VOR, the headings given by the MC60 localizer are off by a few degrees when toggling between the two. This offset can be seen on the RNAV511 and KI209 as well.

5. Lastly, I'll duck and chime in on the ROP/LOP discussions. I know its being reworked so all this is probably OBE, but I think the current issue is just how the procedure was written in the manual. ROP and LOP follow the exact same procedures in that you pre-lean and continue leaning until you pass peak EGT when ROP indicates LEANEST while LOP indicates RICHEST. However, all I read this the same and just take this to mean we've passed and found peak EGT. Since, even with the friction lock engaged, EGT drops off so fast with a single middle mouse button roll, you're often almost perfectly within the 25-50F LOP target suggested after the flashing message goes away. You're done! For ROP, you enrichen, re-pass peak and continue until you hit 50-100F ROP. However, unlike the manual suggests you only ever view deltaEGT and FF in the data windows, and deltaEGT is always a negative value on either side of peak EGT. Pressing Lean Find does not toggle settings. In the end, its easy to understand what is going on and achieve what you're targeting, it just doesn't play out how its written in the manual.

[Black Square]

So glad to hear you're enjoying the aircraft. Many of the features you've hopefully been enjoying in the 114 are currently working their way back to my previous aircraft, and into the future ones too, so I hope you will enjoy them as well. Welcome to the Black Square Pilot's Association

1. I don't know how you ever spotted this... Luckily, the 114 seems like the only aircraft affected. It appears a single misplaced curly bracket in the code was the culprit. My other aircraft conveniently avoided the parameter that triggered that block of code. Thank you for pointing it out.

2. Your understanding is correct. Did you scroll through the individual CHT's and subtract the coldest from the hottest yourself to see if it came out to the displayed value?

3. The outside air temperature probe displays the Total Air Temperature, as opposed to Outside Air Temperature, which is a few degrees higher due to ram air forces on the probe at cruising speeds.

4. I'm probably missing something here, but how are you comparing bearings to the tuned station on two different radios with the MC60? The MC60 should always display NAV1, and the KI209 should always display NAV2.

5. Yes, as you said, this has all been redone now, but I have yet to update the manual, so I will be thinking about some of your word choices when I do. I also fixed the lack of absolute EGT and FF display mode after leaning, which was a single character mistake in the single engine version of the instrument. Thank you for sharing your thoughts

[stedanko]

1. Haha, I was doing a discriminating inspection of the liveries and noted something looked a little off when I flipped sides.

2. I did scroll through the individual CHTs, I can report back with some numbers later both on the ground, taxiing, and then in the air. But when I checked in a couple different situations, the numbers never seemed to match. I'll double check on this.

3. Makes sense!

4. With the KLN-90B installed, I'll setup a Direct-To to a VOR station. On the NAV1 radio, I'll tune to that VOR frequency. When I toggle between NAV and GPS on the MD41, the MC60 will read a different heading by several degrees (i.e. KLN-90B would show a heading of 53, while the NAV radio shows 58 yet they are both technically the same VOR station). The NAV511 reading (with 0 offsets dialed in), will match with the MC60 heading when set to the NAV radio frequency, mismatched with the GPS heading.

5. No worries, my pleasure!

[Black Square]

@stedanko

1. These types of things always leave more mysteries than I can solve. This only happened with the 114, because I included a parameter in the dynamic registration setup that I haven't on any other aircraft. Where did it come from? Why was it there? Who knows, haha.

2. Oh yeah, I remember this now. I was displaying the result of the outlier cylinder, rather than the actual difference itself. That will be in the next update too.

3. Ah, thank you for explaining. More than likely what you're seeing is the difference between VOR declination and actual GPS heading. Every VOR has a certain declination, which is set at the time of its construction (and possibly updated thereafter), which does not necessarily match magnetic north at that location. If you scroll around on a sectional, this is why all the compass roses around VOR's point in slightly different directions. If you wanted to test this for yourself, you can try plotting the same line on SkyVector or another VFR plotting application, and see if the radial it intersections on the compass rose is actually 058. You can also see this on your directional compass if you allow the autopilot to fly the course to the VOR. A VOR bearing/radial should never be taken as the actual heading to fly, except for giving you a ballpark.

[stedanko]

Just to follow up on the EDM-800 DIF temp, did a couple tests. At idle, DIF read 18F. When converted, it incorrectly displayed 10C (should be -8C). Cylinder readings, in F, across the 6 for EGT/CHT were: 444/310, 463/322, 440/308, 474/329, 453/315, 468/325.

At around 1000 rpm, DIF read 22F, converted to 12C (should be -6C). Cylinders read: 531/234, 557/243, 528/233, 571/248, 542/238, 561/244.

Another note I had was that when rapidly shifting the throttle, the DIF temp seemed to settle much much faster than the EGT/CHT temps were moving, in that the DIF temp was stable while the EGT/CHT temps were still moving fairly rapidly more than approx. 10 deg. Not sure I'd expect the DIF stability when temps are moving so quickly.

Hope this helps!