Dancing Throttles RFP

[PAC1544]

"Anyone know what might cause the throttles to dance in the RFP? Everything is fine, and then I set up for landing, on approach, put on the autoland...land fine, but turn off the Autothrottle and have the throttle quadrant pulled all the way to idle, and the throttles keep trying to jumped to full power. Sometimes it's just one lever, sometimes its two. Anyone have this before? Brian"

[John Khan]

"Brian I noticed this happens with all aircraft when they are cruising on Auto throttle or VNAV, just something with Flightsim I suppose. What sort of throttle control do you use? There is a box to tick on FSUIPC, go to the 'Miscellaneous' tab and tick "Fix Control Acceleration" in the 2002/4 section. Don't know but it might help. Reghards John"

[PAC1544]

I have the CH Quadrant. Not sure if that helps

[nwadc10]

"

I have the CH Quadrant. Not sure if that helps

Do you also have the CH yoke? If so, I've seen behavior similar to that if the throttle control on the *yoke* is not fully forward or aft. When the control is in the middle it seems to send conflicting signal to FS where throttle 1 on the yoke is mid-range and throttle 1 on the quad is elsewhere. If that doesn't work, I have seen what you are talking about before and I have to think a bit about how I fixed it. Let me know if it's the yoke throttle first. Justin"

[PAC1544]

"Nope, no yoke. I have a stick still. I need to buy a yoke and pedals, keep meaning to, but I hate to do mail-order. No stores carry them that I know of anymore."

[LeFick]

"Howdy! I also have the CH Throttle Quadrant. If your joystick also has a built in throttle, Check the joystick lever settings in both FS and FSUIPC, to see if you have the stick throttle assigned to a throttle axis. In FS you can has 1 lever assigned as "throttle" which I think is a global throttle like pressing F2 or F3, and further down the list you can seperately assign "Throttle 1" "...2" and so on at the same time. I recommend not setting any lever (stick or quadrant) to the global throttle axis and using the independent throttles only. When you say "all the way back" do you mean the idle detent? as "all the way back" is 1/2 inch more, and should engage the individual reversers for each engine. I think if you engage the reversers too soon, even by accident, the aautopilot will rev up the engines to exit the reverser mode. However this theroy is untested. Also, I have seen my throttles go full after touchdown, but usually only after a "go around". I have not yet mastered a solution for this except to "go around" again and land completely on manual. Let me know if any of that helps."

[nwadc10]

"

Nope, no yoke. I have a stick still. I need to buy a yoke and pedals, keep meaning to, but I hate to do mail-order. No stores carry them that I know of anymore.

Not sure where you got the quad from but I recommend purchasing from amazon.com. I got all three from there for about 1/2 the price of anywhere else. A pilot shop at an airport in St. Paul had them in stock so if you really don't want to order online check out the nicer pilot shops at the larger airports near you. They will charge the full price though. Back to the issue at hand...is AT still engaged? If so that may override a new throttle setting. Also try recalibrating the controls in FSUIPC registered version. I know I've had this problem before and it was a pretty easy fix...but I don't remember what it was Justin"

[PAC1544]

"I had the autothrottle switched off, so it must be an FSUIPC issue, which I seem to have lots of trouble with on the quadrant. It seems I have to recalibrate it frequently (several times a month) So I assume that is the issue."

[LeFick]

"Thats strange about the quadrant. While I often have problems with the dynamic brakes on the pedals, I have never had a problem with my quadrant. I would still suggest, going down the axis assignments in Flight Sim, under each attached device, and removing all the trottle assignments you come across., and then re assigning the throttles 1-4 by number only, to 4 of the trottle levers of your choise. This is how mine are set up left to right in FS9: Lever 1 spoiler Axis (X Axis) (Reverse Axis is Checked) Lever 2 Engine 1 Throttle Axis (Y Axis) Lever 3 Engine 2 Throttle Axis (Z Axis) Lever 4 Engine 3 Throttle Axis (X Rotation) Lever 5 Engine 4 Throttle Axis (Y Rotation) Lever 6 Flaps (Z Rotation) (Reverse Axis is Checked) The XYZ axis/rotation is just what FS displays in the second colum, and the third column in the reverse setting that does the oppositte of what you have set. This way with the flaps lever all the forward, flaps are at "0" and not "30" Now, to ensure the reversers worked fine I calibrated the trottles under FSUIPC. Open FSUIPC and on the last folder tab JOYSTICKS selects screen 3 of 11 titled: Seperate Throttle per engine. To properly calibrate the throttle do the following for each of the 4 throttle levers: 1) Set the filter ckeck box to checked. 2) Pull the throttle all the way back. The first number indicator should read about neg16000 (-16000) plus or minus a few hundred. 3) Press the first SET button (Reverse). 4) Move the throttle slightly forward, untill it rests in the detent position. (This is the engine IDLE position). 5) Now, ever so gently, pull the lever back just so it is just about to leave the detent position, but not quite, and hold it there. 6) Press the second SET button (Idle). The upper of the two middle numbers should be around neg 13500 to neg 12500 (-13500 ~ -12500) 7) Next, ever so gently push the lever forward just so it is about to leave the detent position, but not quite, and hold it there. Press the SECOND SET BUTTON (Idle) AGAIN! The lower of the two middle numbers should be anywhere from -11000 to neg 9000 (-11000 ~ -9000). What this does, is created a dead zone on the axis, so fluxuations in teh circut dont react as throttle changes when you intend it to be in idle. 9) Move the lever all the way forward. 10) Press the third SET button (Max). The tird number should read about pos 16000 plus or minus a few hundred. I also set the buttons below the levers to coraspond to the engine fuel cutoff switches, and button 1 is the parking brake, while button 6 raises and lowers the gear. Note: The VIP edition however, does not allow for the cuttoff button assignment, and using them will disrupt the engines in undesirable ways. I hope this helps...."

[PAC1544]

"It's not the CH Throttle Quadrant. I flew using the joystick throttle only tonight with a separate config so it ONLY used the joystick (I keep separate config files for # of engines) Anyway, it danced with that one too. I don't know what the heck is wrong. If I disengage AP, AT and the FD and try to use the throttles it has no effect, they dance like crazy and try to do a FULL POWER all the time... Taxiing is right out, so I tried departure...no problems. Take off...set AT and AP and FD....GOING WAY TO FAST! None of the AP settings can tame it, so I put it all back on manual....DANCING again...keeps trying to give me full power...the RFP is the only panel that does this...HELP!!!!"

[PAC1544]

"UPDATE: OK, last night I used the time that the website was(is) down to work on this problem. It's not in the throttles. I reset the throttles and recalibrated them and flew out of KSEA. Did a quick traffic pattern and landed. Ahhhh RFP still hand-flys smooth with a capital SMooooooo, but the throttles were fine. So I believe the issue is somewhere in the autopilot. Also, for some reason everthing in my cockpit looks jumbled. I have all of the updates installed, but in the VC there are no gauges and on the pedestal it looks like everything was printed teice and the second time offset just a bit. I had the issue before, but can't recall the fix. Back to the throttles, I think the issue is in the AP somewhere. I make sure everything on the MCP is off, so I am not sure what is trying to run the throttles to full open. hmmmmm more looking"