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taxing a turboprop


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Hey guys I am not accustomed to a turbo prop.  How can you taxi the Otter without it wanting to do 50 on the taxiway?  Should you feather the props and add a little throttle? What's the method?  I had the same issue with the Caravan years ago in previous sims.  I have spent most of my time in radial engines or jets.  

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I use a little power to overcome inertia, then find it will taxy nicely at idle power.  If too fast, a touch on the brake or beta power but using a throttle detent for beta (which is a switch, rather than an axis) means that it can only be engaged for short periods without stopping the a/c.

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1 minute ago, Transair27 said:

I use a little power to overcome inertia, then find it will taxy nicely at idle power.  If too fast, a touch on the brake or beta power but using a throttle detent for beta (which is a switch, rather than an axis) means that it can only be engaged for short periods.

Yea that is what I do now.. I just find it excessively fast.  You get it going by just barely inching the throttle and then it wants to just keep increasing speed up, up and up.  Even after you have cut the throttle.  If you engage reversers it stops it but as soon as you turn them off its back to the races again..  I find myself just riding the brake, which would be bad practice in real life obviously.  

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18 hours ago, Mathijs Kok said:

 

Mmmm, if the aircraft is light almost all aircraft will start to roll at idle. 

I agree but even being 300 pounds from max takeoff gross.. Its accelerating way up on the taxiway.  The turbo props even dating back to the caravan in FSX did the same thing to me. 

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In most Turbo-Props you are using the BETA mode for taxiing, which is usually not managed by prop levers (several Turbo-Props do not even have a prop lever) but with the throttle. I always configure my throttle settings in X-Plane so that the first 10% are for Reverse thrust which is also mostly managed by the throttle setting in real life, another 15-20% are for the BETA range and only the remaining 70-75% are for normal operation mode.  These values may need adjusting for your individual throttle/aircraft combination but as a general rule of thumb these values work well.
By using these throttle settings in XP11 I can vary the taxi speed from complete stop till 30+ knots without having to use the brakes, I can actually even slow down by adjusting the throttle, no matter whether the plane is at MTOW or extremely light.
I'm not sure how to implement these setting in FS2020 because I stopped using it a while ago but if I remember correctly, it was not a problem at all...

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On 3/10/2022 at 12:58 AM, EDNR-Cruiser said:

In most Turbo-Props you are using the BETA mode for taxiing, which is usually not managed by prop levers (several Turbo-Props do not even have a prop lever) but with the throttle. I always configure my throttle settings in X-Plane so that the first 10% are for Reverse thrust which is also mostly managed by the throttle setting in real life, another 15-20% are for the BETA range and only the remaining 70-75% are for normal operation mode.  These values may need adjusting for your individual throttle/aircraft combination but as a general rule of thumb these values work well.
By using these throttle settings in XP11 I can vary the taxi speed from complete stop till 30+ knots without having to use the brakes, I can actually even slow down by adjusting the throttle, no matter whether the plane is at MTOW or extremely light.
I'm not sure how to implement these setting in FS2020 because I stopped using it a while ago but if I remember correctly, it was not a problem at all...

Thank you that's good info. I'll hafta look into that all that.  I have a very simple two lever setup for the throttle and props. 

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On 3/10/2022 at 5:58 PM, EDNR-Cruiser said:

In most Turbo-Props you are using the BETA mode for taxiing, which is usually not managed by prop levers (several Turbo-Props do not even have a prop lever) but with the throttle. I always configure my throttle settings in X-Plane so that the first 10% are for Reverse thrust which is also mostly managed by the throttle setting in real life, another 15-20% are for the BETA range and only the remaining 70-75% are for normal operation mode.  These values may need adjusting for your individual throttle/aircraft combination but as a general rule of thumb these values work well.
By using these throttle settings in XP11 I can vary the taxi speed from complete stop till 30+ knots without having to use the brakes, I can actually even slow down by adjusting the throttle, no matter whether the plane is at MTOW or extremely light.
I'm not sure how to implement these setting in FS2020 because I stopped using it a while ago but if I remember correctly, it was not a problem at all...

Good point

has anyone else managed to calibrate the throttle such that 75% is normal range and 25% Beta on the H/C Bravo?  That would remove the need to use the detent for Beta which is just a switch and doesn't produce an 'axis-like' effect.... 

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3 hours ago, Transair27 said:

Good point

has anyone else managed to calibrate the throttle such that 75% is normal range and 25% Beta on the H/C Bravo?  That would remove the need to use the detent for Beta which is just a switch and doesn't produce an 'axis-like' effect.... 

This works on my Logitech and Turtle beach setups...check out Joystick L&R-Axis Z and X.

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4 hours ago, rbringh said:

This works on my Logitech and Turtle beach setups...check out Joystick L&R-Axis Z and X.

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thanks  I'll try it

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5 hours ago, rbringh said:

This works on my Logitech and Turtle beach setups...check out Joystick L&R-Axis Z and X.

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This doesn't look as sophisticated as the X-Plane 11 options but it should work.

This is how my old setup for a Thrustmaster T16000M Throttle looked like. You can see that I have the following ranges defined:
Reverse Thrust:  0-10%

BETA/Reverse crossover:  10 - 17%
BETA range  10 - 25%
Idle range:  25 - 33%
Alpha range (normal thrust):  33 - 100%

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That was the setup for my old Thrustmaster rig in X-Plane 11 (not FS2020!) and I am using basically a similar configuration with slightly adjusted values now with my Honeycomb Bravo throttle(s). Even though it's for XP11 it should give a pretty good picture how a turbo prop setup can be configured and tweaked to 99% real world behaviour.

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On 3/12/2022 at 4:12 AM, EDNR-Cruiser said:

This doesn't look as sophisticated as the X-Plane 11 options but it should work.

This is how my old setup for a Thrustmaster T16000M Throttle looked like. You can see that I have the following ranges defined:
Reverse Thrust:  0-10%

BETA/Reverse crossover:  10 - 17%
BETA range  10 - 25%
Idle range:  25 - 33%
Alpha range (normal thrust):  33 - 100%
.

That was the setup for my old Thrustmaster rig in X-Plane 11 (not FS2020!) and I am using basically a similar configuration with slightly adjusted values now with my Honeycomb Bravo throttle(s). Even though it's for XP11 it should give a pretty good picture how a turbo prop setup can be configured and tweaked to 99% real world behaviour.

Unfortunately, MSFS doesn't have this ability to set up separate detents for beta range and reverse. Hopefully it will come in the future. In the meantime, the developer has to provide a throttle calibration function. This is done for example in the FBW A320 neo for reverse, climb and flex detents.

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2 hours ago, John2 said:

Unfortunately, MSFS doesn't have this ability to set up separate detents for beta range and reverse.

If you use Throttle -100/100 I believe you can skew the mid point to make a detent there. If you have Axis and Ohs it’s a breeze.

I my Bravo Throttle setup I use the Boing levers to trigger reverse/beta for each engine individually. So

my Twotter seaplane can twist on the spot.

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1 hour ago, UnsealedKarma said:

If you use Throttle -100/100 I believe you can skew the mid point to make a detent there. If you have Axis and Ohs it’s a breeze.

I my Bravo Throttle setup I use the Boing levers to trigger reverse/beta for each engine individually. So

my Twotter seaplane can twist on the spot.

Well yes and that is what I have done with my TQ6 throttle quadrant as well. But you really only get one detent rather than the two that are required. You sort of get the right effect but it is better with the X-Plane Twotter where you have separate beta and reverse ranges. Also, with the current turboprop modelling in msfs I don't think the props are actually feathering the way they do in the real world and they are just simulating the increased drag. But hopefully that will come with a future sim update. Like the OP, I also find taxiing a bit of a challenge and it is hard to find that point in the range where the plane is neither speeding up or slowing down.

John.

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