Improvements to the Caravan engine performance in MSFS2020
An update about the project: at first my intention was only to increase the engine power, but I ended up doing some extra changes. As I have said before, I'm not a programmer, just a student pilot who likes flight simulation. With the help of fellow pilots we were able to correct some of the problems:
- The engine parameters during start are more accurate now.
- The engine power was increased.
- Now the reverse works.
- The plane performs closer to what it should by the POH regarding the climb and cruise speeds.
limitations/Known issues:
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The propeller doesn't start feathered as it should (actually it doesn't feather at all).
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The G1000 instruments aren't as functional as they should be.
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The turboprop engine logic seems to be badly simulated in MSFS2020 (hopefully this will be fixed by Asobo in future updates).
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While I was able to tune the fuel consumption so it can be more realistic, it still isn't as accurate as it should be. At lower altitudes the consumption is a little lower than it should be, but at higher altitudes (mainly above FL180) there's almost no difference in the fuel flow and it burns like it does at lower altitudes. So at higher altitudes the consumption is actually a little higher than it should be.
While I do understand a little about coding, fixing the problems I described above is a task far beyond my skills. I still intend to release some updates to the cockpit textures and some minor fixes to my modifications, but I don't think I can do much more about the aircraft. That being said, this is an open source project and you're more than welcome to make your own changes to the files I uploaded here. Thanks for taking the time to use my mod, this is the first time I do something like this.
Changelog v0.3.4:
- Yaw damper is now functional thanks to D33pfield.
Changelog v0.3.3:
- Fixed a bug with ITT/Torque during takeoff.
Changelog v0.3.2:
- Adjusted the fuel consumption that was too high. Now it's closer to what it should be at least in the altitudes and settings I've tested, please let me know if you find any problems, I'm still trying to understand how to adjust the fuel parameters.
- The prop doesn't start in the feathered angle anymore when the plane is off at the ramp. The blade angle changing even when the engine is shutdown is unrealistic, so I decided not to change this until I can find a way to properly simulate the propeller governor/feathering.
- Adjusted the values of Torque, Ng, ITT and FF during engine start to match the values of the real plane. Not the exact same values but I think it's pretty close. Thanks to Trevor for all the information and feedback he is providing.
Changelog v0.3.1:
- Idle power tuned, the plane now shouldn't start moving so easily when you release the brakes.
- Engine power tuned.
- Fuel consumption tuned.
- Flight Model tuned.
- Now when you start a flight with the plane in the "cold and dark" state the condition lever is in the CUTOFF position intead of the HIGH IDLE position.
- When you start the flight with the plane in "cold and dark" the propeller is feathered* (read note below) as it should be, but instead of slowly moving to the right angle during engine start as the oil pressure builds up, it just moves when you move the prop lever to max before start, even when the engine is off (this is a problem that will try to solve later, but it might require some custom coding to work the way it should).
- Increased the range that the prop lever control the prop rpm in an attempt to get it to feather, and now you can reduce it to around 200 RPM. This is still a work in progress.
- Got the reverse thrust working. It might be overpowered or underpowered though, I'll adjust it in the next updates, but now it works :-).
- The prop still won't feather. I can get it to move to an angle that is close to what the feather angle should be but it still doesn't feather, the only thing you can do is reduce a lot the RPM. I'll keep trying to improve this.
Some other things to keep in mind:
- The beta range (before the reverse) doesn't really do anything now.
- Fuel consumption and climb/cruise power seem to be working the way they should according to the POH I use as reference, but if you notice any abnormalities or bugs please feel free to open an issue or contact me.
Changelog v0.3:
- Engine performance tuned.
- Fuel consumption tuned.
- Flight model changes: I tried to tweak the flight model to increase the drag generated from the flaps, mainly when using full flaps.
- Corrected Ng values at idle power with condition lever at high idle and low idle.
- Stall speeds corrected.
- Propeller angles corrected in the engines.cfg file but the propeller won't feather at all.
- Now you can install it the right way via the "Community" folder (I think it's working).
Changelog v0.2:
- Climb/cruise speeds corrected.
- Elevator trim actuation is now much more smooth than it was before.
- Engine Power tuned (the plane might feel a little overpowered, but I'm still fine tuning the power output).
- Fuel consumption tuned (now it's closer to what it should be, I'll try to improve it).
- AP FD GA angle reduced.
- Idle Ng corrected.
Changelog v0.1:
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Improved the Ng% -> Torque ratio so it delivers more torque with less Ng%, which resulted in a small gain of performance.
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Improved the Fuel Flow of the aircraft. I'm still doing test flights and as of now it consumes around 100 lbs of fuel less than it should in a flight as per the tables available in the POH. Will try to improve this.
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With this mod, I was able to make a flight following the power settings available in the POH and had a performance close to what it should be. I was able to keep the torque within the limits of the POH while maintaining the desired cruise airspeed. The ITT is still lower than it should be (it doens't limit your torque, you actually can go all the way up to around 2000 lbs/ft of torque and keep the ITT in the green, which shouldn't happen according to the POH).
To view the change log and the features in the latest version please check "releases" on the github repository:
https://github.com/Dros0phila/C208-MSFS2020-Fix
There are probably a lot of other problems with this aircraft, but these are the ones I found more relevant as of now. Again, I am no expert in this kind of plane and I might be wrong in some of these findings. I'm also not a programmer and therefore my skills with software are VERY limited. So I'm open to any feedback from actual Caravan pilots, people who know how to code and of course, flight simmers who could enjoy a more realistic Caravan!
Feel free to reach out to me via discord if you have any suggestions: Drosophila#3435
Here's a improvement mod for the TBM930 by guifarias31: https://github.com/guifarias31/msfs_tbm930_project
-------------------- INSTALLATION -----------------------
Copy the folder "C208B-mod" to your community folder.
If you're using Gamepass/Windows Store the path should be: C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Community
For the Steam version I'm not sure but it should be something like: C:\Users\YourUsename\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightDashboard_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Community
Done! If you have any problems or if you just didn't like the way the plane behaves with this mod you can simply delete this file from the "Community" folder.