Fuel frozen or bug?

[Althar93]

Hello all,

I have recently purchased the SAAB 340. I am still in the process of reading through the systems manual, practicing various situations & getting myself familiar with the aircraft but so far I have been loving it. I really admire the dev's rendition of the plane & they have done a phenomenal job. Unlike a PMDG (or just Boeing), or a fair few of the paywares/aircrafts I have bought in the past, which are of high quality but tend to feel very clinical, the SAAB just feels genuine, with its assets & flaws (yes heading knobs I am talking about you...).

 

Anyway, enough with the introduction - I have recently been experiencing what I believe might be a bug (could well be my inability to operate this plane):

• I fired up a flight yesterday & during the preparatory checks I noticed the fuel temperature was only +02C
• I attempted to start engine #1 from external power but this failed :
  • The engine oil dial rose to about 30-50 & did not go any higher
  • The engine temperature rose to 20C & never went down even after the failed start
  • The propeller did start rotating (visual & audio cue) but complete ignition never happened
  • The engine RPM rose somewhat & then just stayed there (can't remember the value but it was pretty low)

 

After the failed start, I attempted engine #2 with exactly the same issue - a few additional attempts later, the "L Alpha" & "R Alpha" came on & I could not figure out how to turn these off / heat up the engines/fuel.

 

Finally, after half an hour of struggling I decided to try Autostart, which also failed with "RPM too high" (which I presume was due to the needle that never went down again)

 

Does this sound like a bug, or does the aircraft actually model fuel / fuel line freezing? If so, how do I heat up the fuel/engine again using external power / batteries? I can attempt to repro the situation again if fuel icing is not something that is modelled & this is a genuine bug.

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback/answers,

[JGregory]

We are not modeling anything related to fuel temperature other than what X-Plane provides by default.  +02c should not be a problem anyway.  

Did this happen only one time!, or can you recreate the issue at will?  If it was a one time thing, my guess is you just had some sort of temporary glitch.  If it happens again please report back to us.  

The auto-start is restricted from running when prop speed is above a certain threshold. Were the props rotating at a steady speed?, and not slowing down?  That would also be indicative of a temporary glitch of some sort.

[Althar93]

Hello again and thanks for the swift reply. I have only experienced this issue once so far.

I will remember to have my screenshot app running next time to capture it if it does occur again. 

As far as I remember both props were rotating perpetually following the failing starts - this may be due to me not aborting the start up properly but would explain why the autostart did not work afterwards either. 

Anyway, I will keep and eye out for this glitch and report back with more information if it does happen again.

Cheers,

[breadwild]

You just have to let the props spool down to almost nothing before you can try Autostart. It happens occasionally.

[xterminator24]

I have this exact same thing happening to me. I think it may occur if you move your plane to another gate after it loads in. There are some airports that don't have scenery and the default start position is on the runway, if you move your plane using the "Local Map" and then try to start it, it seems to get hung up. I haven't found a workaround other than to start on the runway