Anthony Clark

Just wondering 'cause this "roadmap" post is over two years old with no updates. The new Mooney Ovation and Citation 525 were announced in February of 2022 and then...dead silence for two and a half years. That original roadmap post said "we have a lot in store THIS YEAR". That was at the beginning of 2022, so...I kinda expected to hear or see something - anything - in 2022 or 2023 or early 2024. But, here we are.

Just wondering if there's anything going on at all at TorqueSim. Haven't heard anything about the "up coming projects" in over a year. Does TorqueSim even still exist?

Can the autopilot fly a GPS vertical guidance approach (LPV or LNAV/VNAV)? These approaches are so common now. Many small airports don't have an ILS, but do have a GPS LPV with minimums similar to ILS category I. In approach mode, the autopilot captures the lateral course, but I haven't been able to get it to capture the vertical glide path. Is that just not possible with the older autopilot in the MU-2? All of the modern general aviation autopilots will do that (GNC 500/600/700, S-TEC 55, KAP 140/225). You can fly a fully coupled approach down to minimums in a 172, but not in an MU-2?

The performance discrepancy seems to have been fixed in the XP-12 version. The 4 blade cruises at around 285 ktas and the 5 blade cruises at 280 ktas. Speed drop-off with altitude increase is not as severe either.

It already is the best turboprop available for X-Plane. It is amongst the best general aviation aircraft ever made for X-Plane.

Yes, the MU-2 takes a long time to get everything set up the way you want it. Takes a lot of pouring over the manual and studying how to operate it properly. But in my experience, the planes that take time and effort to learn are the most rewarding to fly. Once I put in the time and effort and went through some frustration, the MU-2 became the most satisfying plane in my X-Plane fleet. It continues to be my favorite aircraft to fly.

I didn't have high hopes for this as every third party aircraft I've tried for X-Plane 12 gave me terrible performance. Like unusable single digit frame rates. The MU-2 was by far my favorite aircraft in X-Plane 11, so I had to give it a try. I am overjoyed! The MU-2 is absolutely gorgeous in X-Plane 12 and gives me very little performance hit compared to the default aircraft. I'm easily getting mid-20s even with lots of clouds. Actual aircraft performance seems to be a bit better too - closer to real world. I'm getting 285 ktas at 15,000'. So pleased to have this excellent aircraft working in X-Plane 12. Thanks for all your hard work.

I know it was mentioned that performance tweaks would be coming after some other priorities were taken care of. I'm just going to mention a few things I've noticed. In the manual, it says there is virtually no performance difference between the 4 and 5 blade propeller variants. After several flights with both, the 5 blade variant is about 20 knots slower. Standard temperature and pressure at 22,000', I get 271 ktas with the 4 blade and 252 ktas with the 5 blade. More blades should theoretically increase takeoff and climb performance at the cost of a few knots cruise speed. Definitely shouldn't be 20 knots slower. Also, both of those cruise figures are way too slow for the MU-2B-60. The dash 60 variant is supposed to be a nearly 300 knot airplane. Cruise speed should be in the 280-300 ktas range depending on altitude, temperature, etc. Final observation is that pulling the condition lever back to 96% rpm at cruising altitude causes ITT to increase. ITT is usually already near redline at that point with the power levers at maximum - resulting in about 60% torque at 22,000'. Coming back to 96% rpm puts ITT over redline. Meaning, you can actually cruise faster at 100% rpm because you can run higher torque. Not sure if that is realistic behavior or not. Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun with this plane. It has quickly become my new favorite. Thanks for all the hard work and dedication in creating this gem.

Of course, it is at least somewhat based on a much earlier Dornier design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Do_X

Also, I just want to say thanks for the professional and patient responses. No terse comments or belittling like I've encountered on another well-known X-Plane forum. That one seems to be run by an immature school yard bully who loves putting others down and censoring those who post things he doesn't like. I don't see any of that here. Just kind professionalism.

Sorry, this is the first one I've encountered that has a vertical speed mode that is not adjustable. Typically autopilots have just a simple altitude hold or they have altitude preselect with an adjustable vertical speed mode. Like the KAP140 in the 172 I fly in the real world. Most other X-Plane aircraft have an S-TEC 55 or Garmin GFC500/600/700 that operates that same way. The only other old school twin turboprop I have is Carenado's Cheyenne II. It has an autopilot that looks very similar to the one in the MU-2, but its pitch wheel adjusts VS and IAS modes.

Alright. Thanks. I'll try it. I searched the entire manual for that kind of description as to how it's done and didn't find any. I actually didn't see anything at all about the autopilot in the manual. I really did try to resolve the issue on my own before posting in the support forum. I am a real world pilot, so I know how most of this stuff works. I've never encountered an autopilot like the one in your MU-2 before. They either have a simple altitude hold where you hand fly the aircraft to altitude and then engage the autopilot...or they have vertical speed modes and altitude preselect where you select your altitude and adjust your climb rate with a wheel or up/down buttons. Never seen one with a vertical speed mode that isn't adjustable. I'm looking forward to a more detailed manual that explains specific procedures for flying this plane or some tutorial videos. Thanks again for your excellent work.

Wow. That severely limits the usefulness of the autopilot and the aircraft in general, particularly on a high performance, high altitude hotrod like the MU-2. Even the autopilot in the 172 that I rent is more advanced - you can adjust the rate of climb or descent without turning the autopilot off. Just push the up or down buttons to adjust the vertical speed. It's simply inconceivable to me that you would have to turn the autopilot off, manually adjust the pitch, and turn the autopilot back on in order to change your rate of climb or descent. I've never seen an autopilot like that on a real or simulated aircraft - with the exception of very simple units that only have altitude hold - no VS or IAS modes. So, what does the autopilot pitch wheel actually do if it doesn't adjust the selected vertical mode? Why is it even there if it doesn't do anything? And what is the correct procedure for initiating a descent in the MU-2?

The autopilot in the MU-2 doesn't seem to behave like other position based autopilots I've seen. Typically, you'll turn on the autopilot and set the horizontal and vertical mode you want and then use the autopilot pitch wheel to adjust the vertical mode you have selected. This usually works by setting your desired altitude and then selecting "altitude capture" and then either "VS" or "IAS" mode during initial climb. The autopilot will capture whatever vertical speed or indicated airspeed the airplane had at that moment. Say you selected IAS mode during an initial climb at 120 kias. The plane will hold 120 kias in the climb. But, that's too slow, so you then spin the autopilot pitch wheel forward (down) until you reach your desired climb speed - something like 150 kias. You can also use the pitch wheel to increase or decrease rate of climb in VS mode. But this doesn't work in the MU-2. Spinning the pitch wheel does nothing. Same thing when starting a descent. Say you're cruising at 20,000 feet. To begin a descent, you would typically select your new desired altitude in the altitude preselect window - let's say 5000 feet. Then click "alt select", then select VS mode. Then you would roll the pitch wheel down until achieving your desired rate of descent. A few clicks to get 1000 fpm down. Then you can adjust rate of descent up or down throughout the descent by clicking the pitch wheel up or down. Again, this does nothing in the MU-2. New altitude selected, "alt set" turned on, VS mode selected, roll the pitch wheel forward and...nothing happens. To get a descent going, I have to turn the autopilot off, push the yoke forward to pitch down, quickly turn the autopilot back on, select VS mode and then accept whatever vertical speed results. No adjustments can be made to vertical speed - the autopilot pitch wheel does nothing. I haven't set any of my hardware to control the autopilot pitch wheel. I'm simply manipulating it with my mouse. The animation shows the pitch wheel moving, but it has no effect on the actual pitch of the aircraft in any of the autopilot vertical modes. I didn't see anything in the manual pertaining to the autopilot that might shed some light on this issue.

2.0.2 solved the issue. It's flying beautifully now. The new throttle behavior and sounds are fantastic too. Just a few more issues to resolve to make it perfect. Thanks!