Strekaya

I see, very useful information AlphaOneSix, thank you!

One thing I noted that changed between 1.2.16 and 1.5.x was that the rectifier bypass switch on the center console (now described in the sim as a "net on rectifier switch ", but it's the only switch on the center console with a red safety cover on it) either operates differently or not at all. Back in 1.2.16, for example, I could turn on the batteries and use that switch to link the battery and rectifier buses (presumably through the DMR-200D) and then power things like the radio or the spotlights or anything else on the bus including the secondary radios or the navigation lights, and so on, using just the batteries and not via the APU w/equipment test switch. For emergencies, of course, but it did function like that back then. Since 1.5.x, the switch has no effect. Now the procedure in case of an in-flight dual generator failure is to also turn on the APU, which will then power the battery bus, though I have to turn on the equipment test switch to also power the rectifier bus. But regardless, the behavior has changed. Really, the only two direct references I've read regarding the use of this switch are from the "Kazan" and "US Army" manuals, the first in reference to it's use if the ДМР-200Д fails in flight (the red "battery in use" light on the pilot's instrument panel lights up) and the second reference regarding it's use during a dual generator or two rectifier failure. So if there's a question to ask, it is this: What is the correct behavior for use of this switch? It did something in 1.2.16, but doesn't do anything now. --

I am curious though, there was a time in 1.2.16 where I could (using only batteries) use the standby rectifier switch on the center console to link/power the rectifier bus via the batteries and do things like contact the tower before startup on the radio, power things like spotlights (pointless, I know) or other things on the rectifier bus like that. Granted, the fans were not in place back then, but being on the rectifier bus nonetheless, was that pre 1.5 system behavior incorrect?

It is my understanding that the YaDRO-1a has a frequency range from 2-17.9 mHz (17999.0 kHz). (I can't recall if the radio in-game shows the decimal point or not.) If you were to try enter 131.0 mHz (if that's Beslan) as "131000" on the radio, you are actually inputting 13100.0 kHz. Outside of mission scripting, I don't think there are any interactive (menu-based) communications using the YaDRO-1 or R-828. Both of those radios have frequency ranges which are (in comparison to other Russian radios) entirely in the range of communicating with ground units or handheld radios exclusively. Anything ATC or wingman related goes through the R-863, and options will always be 'dimmed out' in the command menus for the other radios, which have different frequency ranges.

All I can really recommend is to use the more modern drivers that allow you to adjust deadzones. (The original ones didn't have this option.) I've had my X45 since it came out, and now there is a good 3/8 - 1/2 inch (9-12mm) movement in the stick (using the 'safety bar at the top of the stick as a reference) even before the spring/plastic disk come into play. And then, there's the potentiometer spiking, which was bad enough right around the center 'play' of the joystick that I was constantly 'fighting' the joystick until I used deadzones to cut out the random drifts. So, pretty much the X, Y, rudder (z) have adjusted deadzones on them (between 5 and 9 percent) via the drivers, and asymmetrical ones at that to compensate for random input spiking right at the center. As for the throttle, there is a mechanical 'slack' of sorts where I can move it maybe 3/8 inch (9-10mm) in the opposite direction of the last input and note no change in movement in the calibration screen. So, the throttle is especially bad for precise collective use. Now, I'm sure my drivers are not the most recent ones (6.0.4.1 / 7.0.2.7) but nothing new is added for the X45 after this, at least. Unfortunately, all I can really recommend is use of deadzones over time to at least make the joystick response firm. Unfortunately, for the throttle at least, I have to put up with the response slack, which really is a pain for the Huey and the Mi-8. At least in the Mi-8, there's a blade pitch gauge so I can confirm there is movement. But as it is, precision collective adjustment using the throttle is pretty hard without overcompensating.

Always good to know, thanks! (I had tried using an autotranslator on the Russian Mi-8 forums earlier today, but it didn't translate particularly well.)

I agree with you, my description was just another 'oddity' in APU function in the recent beta. I described in a thread (before this one) the problem where I can start the APU from a cold state and just leave it on for maybe 15-20 minutes, when the generator ability of the APU suddenly fails (observed when the generator is turned on, as witnessed by the voltage and amperage gauges abruptly zeroing out), but the APU still remains on so you can still crank the engines. However, if I turn the APU off after that event happens and try to turn it on again, it won't work (even using, as you said, external power). I can start a mission in the air and after a certain time (maybe that same roughly 20 minutes) I can't start the APU up there, either. So, oddities are definitely afoot, the APU has become strange in many ways..

It seems in this most recent patch, the battery voltage doesn't go down after starting the APU. Beforehand, the batteries (depending on weather) would be between 19-21 VDC after starting the APU the first time, down from 24. Starting a second time is possible on rare occasion (if it was warm out), though if it fails, the voltage would then be down to 12-14 VDC with no chance after that. Now, it goes right back up to 24 once the APU is up, even after starting the APU twice.

A helicopter 'sim-lite' I miss from back in the day is Search & Rescue 3 and 4 (and that Vietnam rescue one too) Man, it'd be awesome to script using the winch to lift people and ambulance litters while holding a hover. One can dream. I've been trying to figure that out myself, but at least you got an answer straight from the source. As an aside, the AI-9V ammeter works now :) There's a new 'dimmer switch' behind the co-pilot which is at the lowest setting by default. Dial that up to increase the brightness. :) I know it's more of an environmental thing (like the wipers), but I love to hear it's going to show up.

There seems to be a situation regarding the APU failing which seems to be tied to whether it is being used as a standby DC power generator. In 1.2.11 and prior when running the APU, power could be seen on the voltmeter when the DC selector knob was set to the standby DC generator section, even before flipping the standby DC gen switch. In the most recent 1.2.12.34848 beta, there is a different behavior where sometimes flipping the standby gen switch once the APU is on causes the voltimeter to come up and show power, and likewise on the accessory (AKK) bus if the equipment test switch is on. Also, the battery voltage sometimes doesn't drop after turning on the APU (it stays at 24 VDC instead of dropping to 20-21 in prior versions). What seems to happen for reasons I can't figure out is that at some point, the APU DC generator suddenly 'gives out'. The newly functional AI-9U ammeter will drop to zero, along with the DC generator voltage. If it happens during engine startup, the APU still functions to crank the engines. (Of course, I do disengage the DC generator before cranking the engines, but this has happened with using only the APU DC generator by itself, no attempt to start engines.) However, after this event happens where the power drops out, the APU can't be restarted once stopped. The APU EGT never seems to completely zero out. In prior versions, I can start and stop the APU on the ground or in the air, as needed, certainly useful maintaining system power in engine out scenarios. It is nice to see the AI-9V ammeter working; the only thing I noticed regarding that was that engaging the minimal circuit breakers to get the APU running and switching the DC generator, it was showing a roughly 50 amp pull, but once I turned on the minimum CBs to get the engines started, it was close to 100 amps. After a certain amount of time at that level, the power just cuts out. When I get a chance, I'll try other things like turning on spotlights and see if it cuts out quicker. There was a reply in the main forum regarding this being fixed soon, but thought I'd mention it.

A bug, something broke with scripted radios [still playing after switching frequencies] in 1.2.9. I mentioned it in the Mi-8 bug forum a few months back, but hasn't been fixed.

I have a mission from 1.2.8 (but resaved in 1.2.9) which used mission triggers to broadcast in a loop on several frequencies, both AM and FM. However, since the latest patch, they won't 'detune' when I change the frequency. (In other words, I keep hearing the station on the Yadro-1a even after dialing away, and if I dial to another mission trigger broadcast frequency on the same radio, I hear both at the same time.) This doesn't seem to affect radio presets on the R-863 and the R-828. But the same thing happens on the R-863 if manually dialing in AM frequencies that I have triggered broadcasts on (which start the same time the mission starts and run continuously). This also affects the AN/ARC-51BX UHF radio on the Huey. I haven't really tested items on FM (I'll try after work tomorrow), but the commonality seems to be tuning radios to mission trigger stations, certainly on AM but possibly FM as well. They keep playing until you turn the radio off, or switch to another radio set in the Mi-8 (though it will still be playing when you switch back to it.)

When you start the APU, there is a fairly large drop in battery voltage, enough that depending on prior battery use or ambient temperature it may not be possible to stop and restart the APU for whatever reason on batteries alone. The batteries provide 24 volts DC at the start. It appears that the collision lights stop working entirely at or below 20 volts DC, which is right around the threshold the batteries are providing after a battery APU start. (Often times, it's around 19 volts DC.) Once you start the main generators (or standby generator on the APU), or external power, this voltage jumps back up to 27 volts DC, and the collision light comes back on. Leading to your second question, once you have either turned on external power, or the two main generators, or the standby generator, they are supplying power to the accumulator bus at or over 27 volts DC, and are no longer pulling from the batteries, and the battery load gauges drop to zero. In fact, the batteries are being charged during this time. It is worth noting, though, that the APU load gauge (the lone gauge roughly above the anti collision light switch and to the left of the battery and rectifier switches) is meant to show load if the standby generator is on, but as of now still doesn't work.

The GMK-1 system finds and compensates for magnetic north by latitude and displays this information on the compasses at the top of the pilot and copilot stations. It also sends this information to the autopilot heading system and the doppler navigation system. If you don't turn on the breaker on the right triangular panel, for example, then you can't use the heading hold autopilot. This information is a continuation from the above from fjacobsen, from the US Army TM 1-1520-Mi-17-10 , which if you search for this PDF online, is the closest thing to an actual manual we are going to get. Looking at the Russian manual available, it only seems to mention it a few times but doesn't explain it. (I'm sure it's a work in progress, just like the English version.) There's also a very good manual that used to be in the docs directory for the Mi-8, but disappeared along with the partial Russian manual around 1.2.6. (Mi-17-1V-Flight-Manual.pdf) Still, the information regarding the 3K switch usage is somewhat ambiguous, though in this segment (courtesy of the Kazan Mi-17-1V manual) suggests it can be used to check the responses from the autopilot system before takeoff: I suspect the mentioned cumulative error for the compass isn't modeled. There was a different navigational system for the Ka-50 in which you could correct for cumulative gyroscopic navigational drift by flying over a map location or looking at a spot on the terrain via the Shkval to correct for the drift, but that [drift] never got modeled, though you could still use that feature. If I have time, I'd like to see what happens if you turned off the GMK system or kept the gyro cutoff switch on the left triangular panel off.

They seem to work the same as they do in the Ka-50. Switching to the CT-1/2 channels over 90% engine RPM causes the N2 high light on the pilot's panel to light up. As for the TK switch, unlike the Ka-50 there's no lights in the Mi-8 to indicate the engine is at max gas-generator RPM (well, except the contingency power lights right under the N2 lights, so it is near it). It's really hard to do that test on the ground without taking off, so I ended up setting the ECL of the one engine to idle, the engine for the test to max, and then increased the collective until the contingency light went on. Holding the TK switch to that engine caused the contingency light to go off. All I can really say about that is that the TK test switch definitely does something, but I really don't know what the procedure to test that (what to look for) for the Mi-8. Also, the other test in the EEG section of the Ka-50 manual, where you rapidly flip from CT-1 to CT-2 shuts the engine down in both helicopters . (ref. Sections 6-86 and 9-14 of the English Ka-50 manual). Hope that was somewhat helpful, I honestly don't know if it was. When the Mi-8 manual comes out, hopefully it answers all of these questions.