Lift spoilers
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Hello all, BAe 146 newby here. Been having fun learning how to use her and one thing I can not seem to get to work correctly are the lift spoilers. Green and Yellow spoiler buttons are on. Hydraulic system is working. Air break deploys as it should, just can not get the lift spoilers to deploy. Am I missing an "arm" function?
Thanks in advance for your help and patience.
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@infamousaviator I'll be honest I haven't checked outside at the same time! For me the ground handling is a little over lively especially in crosswinds so I don't dare change my viewpoint until I've slowed enough and by that time the lift spoiler light has gone out (I am assuming here they close below a certain speed but I'm not a 146 expert so could be totally wrong).
Ian.
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On the 146 if you look up you'll notice the auto lift spoiler function has been deactivated.
There is no "arm" or auto-deploy.
Correct usage is short final have airbrake around about full - but handle not in the Lift Spoiler (full aft) detent.
Once touched down (and not bounced) jam lever back full aft to deploy the lift spoilers.
Having a hardware spoiler axis like on the TCA quadrant is handy for this.
This was done to avoid the aircraft bounced with the spoilers up and a resultant very hard 'second' landing.
The behaviour was adjusted on the later Avro RJ variants to re-introduce automatic lift spoiler function.
Patrick
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You can easily verify proper operation of the spoilers by starting a flight on the runway, then just pull the AIRBRAKE lever to the full aft LIFT SPLR position. Switch to the External view to verify that all of the spoilers are UP, and the airbrake is fully deployed. You can also assign a joystick lever, if you have one available, to the SPOILERS AXIS command under CONTROLS OPTIONS.
There is a good simple description of how to properly deploy the airbrake and spoilers during landing on pages 206 - 208 of the 146 Professional MSFS Manual (in the Documents folder).
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@retiredman93231 Thank you and everyone else in the thread. It turns out it was user error (isn't it always?). After testing it, the lift spoilers are in fact deploying as they should. I'm learning a lot about the 146 and it's quickly becoming a quirky favorite of mine.
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To add to all the above...
There is no auto-spoiler or arming capability on the 146 so they need to be manually deployed. After touchdown, you need to bring the airbrake lever all the way aft to the LIFT SPLR position, which you can do by using the spoiler toggle or extend control assignment.
That position can only be selected once on the ground, when in the air it will just extend to the maximum airbrake position.
The LIFT SPLR annunciator light on the glareshield is actually a warning that you have not deployed your lift spoilers after touchdown, with the warning lasting several seconds before cancelling itself.
If you have the pilot callouts enabled then you will hear a, "Yellow and green spoilers", callout once the lift spoilers have been successfully extended.
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@martyn I think you might have touched on my issue. I believe my first few landings I went full aft on the brake but hadn't touched down yet, so it was not in the arm spoiler position. I'll be more mindful in the future. Thank you for spelling that out so clearly and to you and your team for representing the 146 so beautifully.
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@martyn When I assigned the spoiler axis 0 - 100% bind to my pinky wheel on the Thrustmaster TWCS throttle it only responds at extremes of the axis giving either 0% or 100% and nothing in between.
So as of now I have the spoiler bound to the toggle function with a button which, although functional, is not ideal.Is there another MSFS bind I should try for my rotary axis to function correctly or am I stuck with the button?