DHC-4 Caribou

[keithb77]

Same. It's such a delight to fly I can forgive a lot. I've used it on two complete Misty Moorings tours now, and it's quickly become my go-to bird. Only real crab is the lack of power above about 8000' ASL. The ceiling should be over 20,000', so something is wrong. I had to abandon a flight over Mt. Denali because I just couldn't make it higher than 10,000'.

I got up to 22,000 ft this morning, over England. climbing out of Duxford...were you leaning as you climbed?
Maybe icing?

[jankees]

several people asked for this one:
interm (0006) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

interm (0005) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

interm (0003) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

interm (0001) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

https://flightsim.to/file/51508/de-h...n-air-services

[sp762]

Ok, stupid question. I’m trying a repaint, of the Ansett-MAL caribou that was flown in PNG during the seventies.

How do I move the registration from it’s spot on the empennage? It should be on the tail for this paint job.

[cavaricooper]

JanKees- your weathering is becoming really superb!

BZ

C

[Rallymodeller]

Window heat would have been nice , i mean the knob is there but it aint working.

snap02106 by Danny Best, on Flickr

I wonder about a couple of the systems, like if they have them planned for a future update. You'd think wipers and heated windows would have been natural.

[Daveroo]

second one down looks like theyre on final for a retardant run. lol.

several people asked for this one:
interm (0006) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

interm (0005) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

interm (0003) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

interm (0001) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

https://flightsim.to/file/51508/de-h...n-air-services

[Rallymodeller]

I got up to 22,000 ft this morning, over England. climbing out of Duxford...were you leaning as you climbed?
Maybe icing?

So here's what happened, after I thought about it a bit. The real plane has auto-rich and auto-lean settings on the mixture levers, as would be expected from a Stromberg-equipped R2000, and the gates are even marked as such. A/R is full forward, A/L is about 50%. What I failed to realize, and this was made worse after a lot of flying the AH DC-3 that has it (and the PMDG DC-6 that has a flight engineer), is that ORBX didn't bother to enable those particular settings. I had been flying the plane according to the POH, and was super confused as to why I was getting no altitude power.

I tried it again today playing with the mixtures like it was a Cessna and got well into oxygen-needed range. Live and learn.

Another thing added to the list of This Really Needs To Be Corrected along with the lack of an autopilot, the power-setting gauges, and lack of window de-icing and wipers.

Still well worth it, though.

[sp762]

The window heaters do work, but the switch is disabled. I just added a key mapping.

I can’t find a command for windscreen wipers, though.

[Burnhaven]

So here's what happened, after I thought about it a bit. The real plane has auto-rich and auto-lean settings on the mixture levers, as would be expected from a Stromberg-equipped R2000, and the gates are even marked as such. A/R is full forward, A/L is about 50%. What I failed to realize, and this was made worse after a lot of flying the AH DC-3 that has it (and the PMDG DC-6 that has a flight engineer), is that ORBX didn't bother to enable those particular settings. I had been flying the plane according to the POH, and was super confused as to why I was getting no altitude power. I tried it again today playing with the mixtures like it was a Cessna and got well into oxygen-needed range. Live and learn. Another thing added to the list of This Really Needs To Be Corrected along with the lack of an autopilot, the power-setting gauges, and lack of window de-icing and wipers. Still well worth it, though.

Can you be a bit more explicit on how to auto-lean the caribou and at what altitude this should be done?

[Rallymodeller]

Can you be a bit more explicit on how to auto-lean the caribou and at what altitude this should be done?

It doesn't have autolean, sadly. In real life AR is full-forward on the mix levers and AL is at about 50%. The mixture gates are marked as such, but the algorithm for auto-rich and auto-lean don't seem to have been implemented. I just use "automix" in the assistance tab for the Caribou.

[Burnhaven]

Auto mix is probably a global change so you need to turn that off when you switch aircraft?

[Rallymodeller]

Auto mix is probably a global change so you need to turn that off when you switch aircraft?

It is, and it's not a perfect solution as the mixture is always set for peak power. There's no way to lean out for fuel economy.

[Burnhaven]

It is, and it's not a perfect solution as the mixture is always set for peak power. There's no way to lean out for fuel economy.

There is a key binding in controls that is something like "set best mixture," I'm going to see how well that does. But even with a supercharger, engines are going to produce less power at altitude. I'm beginning to think the Caribou was really built for under 10k ft.

[azflyboy]

There is a key binding in controls that is something like "set best mixture,"

IIRC, Asobo broke that binding about a year ago (it just forced the mixture to cutoff), and I don't know that they ever fixed it.

[Burnhaven]

IIRC, Asobo broke that binding about a year ago (it just forced the mixture to cutoff), and I don't know that they ever fixed it.

I did notice the mixture levers move just a bit when I set that binding. Time will tell if it's doing enough but I'm beginning to think the Caribou was designed for under 10k ft altitude, especially when operating on shorter fields.

[azflyboy]

I'm beginning to think the Caribou was designed for under 10k ft altitude, especially when operating on shorter fields.

That's absolutely the case.

Unlike turbine engines, piston engines don't burn appreciably less fuel at higher altitudes, so an aircraft like the Caribou would have been optimized for lower altitude performance, with altitudes above 10,000ft or so only being used for things like ferry flights (where the higher true airspeed and favorable winds would come into play) or situations where high terrain was involved.

[Burnhaven]

That's absolutely the case.

Unlike turbine engines, piston engines don't burn appreciably less fuel at higher altitudes, so an aircraft like the Caribou would have been optimized for lower altitude performance, with altitudes above 10,000ft or so only being used for things like ferry flights (where the higher true airspeed and favorable winds would come into play) or situations where high terrain was involved.

Makes sense:

service ceiling:
7,560 meters (24,800 feet)