New to the Malibu

[NM Doug]

Almost all of my virtual hours (and all of my real hours, so far) have been in a Cessna 172, but I've been trying out the Piper Malibu on PE for a new challenge.

Before flying on PE with it, I tried several landings - and the landings are going OK. During IFR flight on PE, however, I've discovered that my lack of familiarity makes the "aviate" part of the "aviate, communicate, navigate" take up way too many of my brain's CPU cycles

I'd like to improve my "by hand" flying, rather than autopilot, but I'm not efficient or good at trimming the airplane. Because of this, even when I look at a chart or approach plate for just a few seconds, I look up again and have drifted off altitude, heading, and even airspeed. Any suggestions, good V speeds for the X-Plane 9 version of the Malibu (which I'm flying in X-Plane 10), other tips?

Thanks for ideas...!
Doug

[Keith Smith]

but I'm not efficient or good at trimming the airplane.

Ding ding ding. You've identified the issue beautifully. Don't worry about shooting approaches yet, just head out VFR to a practice area on PE and work on the fundamentals, straight & level, turns, climbs, descents, etc.

FWIW, I used Chandler's Saratoga is my instrument training platform in the sim. That said, the Malibu that X-Plane ships with is from Chandler, too.

I'll give it a whirl tomorrow and will let you know if there appear to be any gotchas.

The key, as with flying a real plane, is not to fly with the trim...you fly with the stick, doing whatever it takes to keep the plane dead level, then "trim out the pressure." If that doesn't make sense, let me know.

[Mark Hargrove]

"Trim out the pressure" is a whole lot easier to do in a real airplane than in a simulator! My biggest wishlist item from shortly after I started simming was that somebody would produce a reasonable force-feedback yoke. I still haven't found one.

-M.

[Keith Smith]

Mark, I agree with you. It's easier in the plane, but I am definitely able to do it in the sim and get to a hands-off situation.

[TomATL]

God, isn't that the truth! I often find myself all over the sky at those crucial moments when I'm trying to level off and change frequencies, especially in X-Plane. Glance away for a very short while and you're guaranteed to find yourself in some sort of unusual attitude (and likely being reprimanded by a controller) when you glance back.

That kind of thing just doesn't happen in a real airplane, and I wish someone over there was paying attention to the "twitchiness" inherent in the flight models and taking this feedback seriously. (I know they're not, because it's been a complaint for several versions now with no real changes that I've noticed).

[Keith Smith]

Tom, the only planes that give me that kind of trouble are single engine pistons. The aircraft models are built perfectly straight, as are the engine mounts. This results in aircraft that tend to roll when power is applied. Consequently, you end up needing to use aileron trim to keep the wings level at a given power setting. Other than that, I haven't found the difficulty that you're describing. Which plane are you flying? If I can try it, I will.

[TomATL]

Keith,

I generally fly the Carenado Beech Bonanza. It's twitchy in the longitudinal axis (hard to trim properly) and also displays the problem you noted - I often find myself holding the yoke over 30 degrees or more to maintain level flight, which is hard to do precisely without eyes on the instruments or horizon.

(You're not flying around IRL in a Cirrus these days, are you?)

[Keith Smith]

Hi Tom,

That sounds completely messed up, but I don't have any of the Carenado aircraft. Do yourself a favor and try out Chandler's line of Pipers (they're about $1 per aircraft, pretty hard to beat). The cockpits are of the same quality as the $20+ aircraft, but the flight models are sweet.

I fly a Lancair 360 IRL.

[NM Doug]

I flew out to a practice area on PE for a bit last night and practiced trimming...

In level flight, I was able to trim off the (imaginary) control pressures OK, by repeatedly releasing the joystick slightly and returning the stick to position immediately after noticing the tendency of the airplane to deviate from my desired path. With the observed tendency in mind, I applied some trim and repeated the process until releasing the joystick didn't result in a deviation. This seems like a generally sound algorithm for a stick without pressure feedback.

The aileron trim the Malibu requires at different power settings can amount to 5+ presses of the key on my keyboard assigned to left or right aileron trim, but if untrimmed, the rate of bank increase isn't huge - maybe 2 degrees/second initially (though I seem to recall this increases). It takes longer than trimming for pitch. If left untrimmed, this effect could indeed be a problem if I look away (reading a chart, etc.) for more than just a few seconds... (I know I shouldn't look away too long anyhow, but some tasks do seem to require more than 3 seconds, so maybe this is good practice in dividing those tasks up, with a look at the AI every few seconds?)

One flight area where the trimming isn't going so well is while establishing climbs or descents. In the 172, the airplane seemed to settle down to a steady state much faster. In the Malibu, my power and pitch changes don't synchronize well, and I feel like I'm chasing needles out of phase. The trimming algorithm certainly doesn't result in a trimmed airplane when the airplane is still adjusting to new power and pitch inputs. I think my ignorance of typical speeds and settings is making this worse, too.

- Doug

[TomATL]

I think I have Chandler's Pipers, but I haven't flown them yet. I've always been a fan of Carenado, but wonder if they're unable to cope with some of the inherent issues in XPlane (of which I'm generally a fan, btw).

I was behind someone for t/o yesterday at PDK who sounded a bit like you on the radio. Wondered if you were in town trying out a new steed!

(IFR checkride in about 2 weeks, wish me luck. PE is definitely part of my preparation.)