PMDG J41

[Skybird]

Signed myself in for a chalenge, I think. After the 737NGX, I ordered another PMDG toy, this time it is the Jetstream 4100, which they all say is tricky to operate. But the quality of the manual, the reported realism, and the videos hooked me. I am also no longe rionterestzed in flying easy small planes a la Skyhawk or Cheyenne, it becomes boring in a flight simulator.

That completely different flight computer and the sensitive, easily blowing up engine, should give me some headaches, I hope.



Avsim verdict: Gold Award

[Herr-Berbunch]

Can't be too hard to fly, it was the RAF's multi-engine and nav trainer for some 34 years!

Although I think the modern ones have glass cockpits nowadays.

[Skybird]

Hand-flying may not be the problem, but engine management, they say that constant monitoring of the - variable - engine temperature limits is necessary in the sim to prevent them from burnign through, also the design of the engine and propellers is unsual, the rpm stays constant and excluisvely the propeller angle gets altered -. where the circles closes to safeguarding critical egnine temps. Also, the lfight compouter system looks totally different form the ones I know from Boeings, one older airbus package, and the ATR-72 that I all used over the years. The manuals I already downloade, they are 750 pages. And the web is filled with requests by desperate people asking for advice on how to do this or that, especially how to start the engines without blowing them up.

Maybe that is why it was a trainer?

Just 90 of these planes have been built. By size they are one class smaller than a Boeing 737 or an ATR 72, but not as tiny as a Cheyenne or Skyhawk or Baron and the like, giving it a more complex handling in cockpit operations.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by Skybird

. . . also the design of the engine and propellers is unsual, the rpm stays constant and excluisvely the propeller angle gets altered -.

A lot of prop aircraft have constant-speed, variable-pitch props, from a C-130 down to a microlight - pretty much any aircraft that 'drones' is variable pitch.

[Skybird]

Could be. But in FS, it is rare, you always seem to have throttle, mixture/condition, and propeller levers, most poeple alter propeller according to altitude, and increase throttle to become faster. And it seems to give people quite some headaches to get used to altering speed by proipeller exclusively in FS, while constantly scanning temperatures. That's what counts to me - I m unlikely to ever make a pilot's license in the remaining rest of my life.

I'll see later this week. I'll let you know. German Amazon orders get handled fast usually, if I'm lucky I could hold it in my hands as early as tomorrow.

[Skybird]

Wowh! This plane promises to become a masochist's dream! I have just broken off with first attempts to get this baby airborne (from a warm&running default state).

Here you see my first fail after I interrupted takeoff at Cologne when the engines blew off.





Here is my second attempt to get airborne, with the accent on "attempt".





And this is what my third attempt looked like, after the plane was through with me.





My excuse is there was thunderstorms and strong gusts from the left.

I now decided to get grounded and start to read that #§+%$"§ manual.

And I even have not tried to start the engines manually, but took the plane in a ready-to-fly state with running engines.

This is great stuff. I think I never - NEVER - have blown up engines before in any FS version, at least I cannot remember. Nor has it ever happened to me in any other flight simulation.

And the virtual cockpit looks very nice. The manual looks intimidating, though.

[Oberon]

From what I can tell, looking at the AVSIM review, prop pitch matters a LOT. I really must get a PMDG aircraft one day, they do look so deliciously fun and complicated.

[Skybird]

They ARE fun, and yes, they are quite complex. My problem with the J41 is that the avioncis are so totally different to what I know, half of the stuff looks different and gets handled differently, or is in unusual places. Arming spoilers I use to do by having a lever on the pedestal. Here it is a tiny little switch hidden in a corner on the front panel. And how to operate the engines correctly, the propellers, that is, still is mystery to me. Currently I can make sense of only half the instruments and buttons I see. I had that kind of orientation problem also long ago with an MD-11, I found it difficult to learn how things gets done there NOT in the Boeing style. Same problem I had with an Airbus A320 even before that, although the many similiarities and things that compared to the Boeings were obvious.

PMDG's 747 (knew the FS9 version) already was very good, but the way to go today is the 737NGX, that one is the benchmark against which all other addons get measured. And this J41, if you want it one or two sizes smaller.

And the 737's CDU/FMC is - well, the system depth is such that I tend to think its functionality indeed maybe is complete.

[Skybird]

I finally managed to get it airborne, fly one round manually, and land it safely. Lovely flioght model, I think, cannot say whether it is relaistic or not since I am no real J41 pilot, but it feels right: heavy, not really agile, you have to plan your turns' diameter carefully, there is a good delay in plane reaction to steering input, it really feels very satisfactory and rewarding. Also, engine and propeller management must be handled with care indeed, the engine temperature must be carefully monitored all the time. I have blown the engine one more time in midair.

The only complaints I have is that there are not quick windows to especially the most difficult panel to scan, the overhead. you either wind your head and brake your neck when using TrackIR, or you press "A" 7ven or 8 times to rotate through several virtual cockpit perspectives. Only the FMC has a 2D panel that can be accessed via Shift-number. Else it is purely virtual 3D cockpit exclusively. the seocnd complaint is the manual. It is thick and throughly done, and in good AOM manner it indeed explains every instrument well and in detail. But it gives no information on procedures, on how to operate the plane, how to start the engines. This I need to collect via internet tomorrow. I have NO IDEA how to start the engines, I accidentally killed them and never was able to relaunch them again.

Ah, and nice live icing effects, deicing ac tullay not only make sense now, but is a necessity, else you cannot see a thing through the window anymore. And good rain textures they have put in, too. No broken things I stumbled over so far.

This rates amongst the best three or four aircraft addons I have tried in all my FS career. Great stuff.

P.S. Just saw there are more pdfs, one of which is a 100 page tutorial where operations and engine start seem to be covered.

[Skybird]

Hell, I love this plane! It is a well-behaved flying pet most of the time, and pushing the lever or pulling it back, gives you immediate reaction, due to the engine construction. It is very different in feeling from all other propeller planes I ever flew in FS, Cheyenne and ATR-72 and SF.260, plus the default planes.

But there are also tripwires for the careless pilot. The planes is not easy to get slowed down, since the propeller even at minimum lever position produces still enormous forward thrust. You cannot reduce the propeller setting (in this plane called "condition") to nill without blowing the engines, since the airstream would move the propellers against the torque produced by the engines - mind you, propeller and engine are linked in a static way, there is no "propeller in idle" setting". Hell, I think I even blew the engines by slightly educing the conditioning within the "flight" range only. Also, the plane has no spoilers that can be operated manually - they can only be armed for landing, else get automatically operated by the plane.

This means it is apparently impossible to go into a descent and slow down at the same time. The descent always speeds you up, you cannot limit the forward thrust and use spoilers to compensate. If you descent, and before approach want to slow down, you probably find yourself impossible to slow down in time, and find yourself in a go-around instead. I operated like this, therefore: I slow down significantly at travel altitude (150 kn or less), use first and second flaps level and lower the gear - and then start to descent from trip altitude in landing configuration.

Well, that really needs to get used to! You need to plan ahead.

Second, first flaps level (9°), makes the plane jump upwards like a bronco on hot coals, I assume the passengers will remember that flight. You need to compensate by tremendous forward pressure on the yoke and instant trimming, or use flaps at lower speeds only, which again rules them out for speed reduction purposes.

And the EEG temp. That instrument you will look a lot at when manipulating the levers. Never cared for it in FS? Well, you will care now!

Great plane, and the window icing and nose icing effects I like, too. Those deicing buttons finally have a meaning in FS.

After I was surprised by these effects, I found it in thorough length described in another pdf as well, it is not in the main manual. I really should learn to read manuals before, not after, takeoff. The plane is difficult to slow down in reality, too, it is no quirk in FS only.

[Skybird]

Now I found why I blew up during engine startup:

Now comes the part that will trip up many of your fellow new PMDG BAe JetStream 4100 pilots: The Start Locks.

I recommend that you pay close attention to the following paragraphs, as it will save you some misery later on in figure flights!

You may have noticed prior to starting the engines that the propellers on the J41 remain in flat pitch when shut down. On a free turbine engine like a PT-6, the props wind up in a feathered condition, with the edges of the blades facing forward. Since the TPE-331 engines are geared engines, start-locks are used to hold the propellers at fine pitch in order to reduce the drag induced by airflow as the propeller is rotated during the start sequence. Remember, the propeller and the engine core are directly linked in these engines, so we want to induce as little stress as possible on the gear mechanisms during the start.Now that the engines are running, we need to remove the start locks so that you can have full command of propeller pitch. To do this, you SLOWLY move each power lever into reverse, one at a time.

I recommend that you move the power lever far enough after that the base of the lever is in the hatch-marked area on the pedestal as shown below:
Do this for both power levers, and the start locks should be removed without any problem.
NOTE:
You will know the start locks have been removed when you hear the callout "Startlocks Removed!" We added this callout in order to help you get a feel for when they have been removed.
There is no indication of the start locks being removed- and this is important to note. If you fail to remove the start locks after engine start, you will discover the following things later in flight:
1)
During takeoff, you cannot get Torque to exceed approximately 30%.
2)
You cannot get much acceleration for takeoff, no matter how hard you push on the throttles.

Well. I instead wnated to increase speed by experimenting with the coindition (=propeller) lever. Up to launch it goes - and then back to taxi i frustration. Boooom!

Some things really need to be known with this plane, and must be learned to do differently than usual planes in FS.

The FMS is - well, the most exotic design I have seen so far. I do not mess around with it that much, instead fly this baby manually, like a mutated Cheyenne on steroids flying low. This aircraft imperatively demands to be flown by hand!

[Skybird]

I cannot believe how much stuffmess up with this plane. Occassionally I still blow the engine on startup or takeoff, also during flight. And to fly this plane manually by hand, is not at all that easy as the usual aircraft of that size in FS, it is quite dynamically shifting up and down, left and right, and difficult to trim. And with every direction change, change in power lever setting, with every speed chnage when climbing or descending, even with every change in air density you experience, the temperature limits for EEG chnage, too, making the eyes almost glued on the instrument, else - boooom.

The feeling and the reward is very good, though. There is nice light effects for panels and cockpit, too. But flying with this needs constant awareness and concentration, you really need to stay focussed - especially in thunderstorm with windy contions as I just have done. The coffee that stood beside the keyboard, got cold only half emptied. I simply had too little opportunity to drink it. After toiuch-down, there is a feeling of relief to be safe back on the ground. Not many addons in FS manage to acchieve that emptional reaction.

The package is not flawless, the tutorial for example describes some details different than it needs to be done, and some sight controls are not optimal, too. Still - I officially consider the J41 by PMDG as a must-have now.

[Skybird]

More happy crashes over here. May it be that I forget to unlock the starting locks of the engines before take off: resulting in low rpm and speed, interrupting the take-off sequence, slowly bringing back condition lever(=rpm) and then trying to move back the power lever (=propeller) and by that cutting the engines into slices. May it be that I mess up the engine start, and try a restart too early, blowing off the engines. May it be - my best stunt so far - that by reflex and habit after touch-down I try to move the button on my HOTAS that usually activates reverses too early, and again sending engine temps to hell. May iot bee that I enter a different air mass and do not realise that the EEG indicator passes beyond the warning line. It's plenty of happy smoke-making over here.

It's all my fault, the procedures and the plane are just what they are. This plane is so much fun.

Just the FMS I do not come to grips with. Anyhow, its more fun to steer by hand with this beauty and handle radio navigation manually.

If airliners are not your thing and you want something smaller, this J41 is the choice to make. Once in the air, the flightmodel is very nice, feels very dynamic and interactive with the surrounding flow of air. I have plenty of airports for Germany and europe, some mof them are a bit small for the 737, between these smaller ones the J41 is ideal for commuting.

I have set my sights oin the revision of the more complex package of the Aerosoft Airbus A320, too. In August, they say. But I will observe feedback before making a decision. It really is up against some extremely competitive benchmarks now. But who knows.

I had some issues to msolve with the sim recently, but it worked out so far, and I must say this is a great, a fantastic summer in my flightsimming career so far. And different to the early years, FSX has become a mature platform for IFR flying and complex airliner modules now as well. It was not always like this. I just need to pass on all AI traffic in the sky - AI planes always sooner or later freeze the sim. But that is a very small price to pay, and I found out meanwhile that that is a problem for many people, apparently. No cure is known that works for all.