Some strange problems

[lrargerich]

Hi!

 

I just got the IXEG737-300 love the plane, it's awesome.

I've been having some strange problems and I think maybe someone with experience might help me.

 

1. Sometimes the throttle moves forward on its own and I can't control it with my joystick throttle.

This strange problem happened 3 times already, the throttles would move to the max on their own will and the plane won't respond to my Hotas joystick throttle lever, the only solution I have found is to restart the flight completely, if I do that problem usually goes away. I have removed XUIPC because I read somewhere that it may be the cause of the problem but today it happened again with XUIPC removed.

 

2. Sometimes Avitab just disappears, I have a blank frame for the tablet, other times it shows just fine. This is a minor nuisance but I have no idea why it happens.

 

3. Sometimes pressing the toe brakes on my pedals will cause the plane to stop completely and  stop responding to the throttle, it won't move at all, it gets stuck to the ground. The workaround I found is to call betterpushback ask for it to move the plane, inmeditely cancel it and then it will move again normally. But the toe brakes don't work well even touching them causes the plane to stop fully and then it won't move.

The 3 issues appear or not randomly, sometimes I have a normal flight, sometimes issue 1 pops, or 3, etc. I'm not changing anything....

Thanks for any help or pointers to solve these issues!

[Litjan]

Hi Irargerich,

thanks for your kind words! Lets see if we can shed some light onto this...

1.) This usually means that the autothrottle took control of your throttles. If the autothrottle logic does that, we remove control of the throttle from the user, because normally users do not have a throttle that can "move" (it has no motors).

The autothrottle will take control if the user tells it to - like if engaging a certain autopilot mode or autothrottle mode. But sometimes the autothrottle also jumps in to save the aircraft if the user tries to fly too slow - this is a reversion mode. To get out you need to increase the commanded speed by 15kts (and be fast enough to not get into reversion again) - or you need to turn off the autothrottle and then "regain" control by using the ghost-throttle symbol to align your hardware thrust levers to the virtual thrust levers.

I recommend watching my tutorials on autopilot use here: https://forums.x-pilot.com/forums/topic/10746-training-videos/

but also this:

https://forums.x-pilot.com/forums/topic/18101-faq-for-new-users/

2.) Make sure you "turn on" the avitab, there is a little button on top of it on the CPTs side - we default it to "off" when starting cold and darke

3.) We use the "normal X-Plane" braking system. To help you troubleshoot you can display the "gear and brakes" status on the "DATA OUTPUT" tab, this will show you small green numbers on the screen that indicate the status of your brakes. It could be that you use the autobrake or the parking brake is still set...

Cheers, Jan

 

 

[lrargerich]

Hi Jan, thanks a lot for the answers.

 

About 1 it happens on the ground so I don't think A/T might be the issue and there's absolutely no way to stop it, and the throttles do not respond to my lever, when A/T is armed the throttles still respond to the throttle lever.

About 2 I always have avitab enabled and I know hot to turn it on, the problem is that sometimes the whole tablet disappears leaving an empty frame for it.

About 3 I will investigate. The problem I have is not only that the plane stops completely but that after it stops it won't move again.

Example: I did a flight last night,  after landing and using reversers to slow the plane I very lightly touched the brakes to exit the runway, the plane stopped completely on the runway and then it won't move, even with max forward thrust, I use the brakes and the plane gets glued to the ground. I will investigate what you mention about the Data Output tab and let you know values. 

Thanks!!! L.

 

Sidenote: I have a very small question that I couldn't find in the docs, there are three lights on the far left side of the cockpit, one white, one orange one blue. They say something like "outer", "airways" and I think "middle". Can you tell me what are those?

[Litjan]

Hi Irargerich,

hmm, those are odd problems - maybe some other plugin you have running could be interfering. However the autothrottle can also take control of the throttles on the ground - that is why they are "armed" only shortly before entering the runway: If a pilot touches the TOGA buttons, the autothrottle will engage and set takeoff power!

The little lights are indeed "marker beacon" lights. There used to be radio markers associated with ILS approaches, sometimes we still have them these days. When you "overfly" them, they will make the lights flash and a beeping sound - this tells the pilot that he is a certain distance from the runway.

Cheers, Jan

 

[lrargerich]

Thanks for the explanation of the lights.

About the strange issues I think you shouldn't worry.

The A/T issue I think it was because AT was armed too early (I come from the A320 so habits...)

The braking issue I solved thanks to your advice about displaying the braking info, for some reason my toe brakes were getting stuck at max brake power even when released, just pumping the brakes a little helped getting them unstuck, now that I know why the problem happens I'm sure it's no longer a problem.

Thanks for your help, the plane is fantastic in all aspects!

[Litjan]

25 minutes ago, lrargerich said:

The A/T issue I think it was because AT was armed too early (I come from the A320 so habits...)

Yes, it is fairly easy to get into trouble doing this - keep in mind that on the 737 classic NO autopilot or autothrottles modes will be used or armed while still on the ground!

The autothrottle should be "armed" while lining up on the runway and then pushing the TOGA buttons will actually trigger the take-off modes for the flight-director (if they are on) and the N1 (full takeoff power) mode for the throttle.

Happy landings, Jan

 

Edited December 5, 2020 by Litjan