Another Gear Pin Failure
I have been following the issue of the gear not going up after takeoff even though the pins are in the basket. I understand it is intermittent and variable and hard to recreate.
I have been experiencing the same issue. Every 4th or 5th flight the gear will just refuse to go up, even though the pins are in the basket. I thought I had a solution in that every flight I opened the forward left exit and reclosed it. This seemed to keep the error from happening, at least the last dozen flights or so.
You should probably know I edited the failure switch to have 0 failures per Krosswinds instructions in a recent post.
This morning I’m on one of my first VATSIM VA flights with a live ATC controller in the Q400 and upon departure the gear would not go up. Talk about baptism by fire. I declared the situation, probably looked like an idiot that forgot to pull the pins, and got vectored back to KSEA whereupon I missed the glide slope and had to go around again. Controller was VERY helpful and all worked out OK. There was other traffic in the area too.
I am getting pretty comfortable flying this beautiful AC, but this morning’s flight and the pin issue pushed the level of my competence right to the hilt.
No sure what’s going on with these pins. I really would not like to have to start from a C&D office every flight, but if that’s the suggested solution, I’ll gerago. I have a saved flight that I have been using for all the above mentioned flights. Most flights are just fine, the AC is ready for engine start. I don’t think this issue is going away.
Annoying. But.... I really am having a great time learning this AC. Challenging but quite rewarding. Thanks for a such a nice sim!
Radial9
Comments
Odd. Who told you using the cold and dark state would solve the problem? On my PC the cold and dark state is the ONLY state which gives me problems with the gear...! All other states have a line in them that stow the pins automatically which makes sure you never get that problem. I copied that line to the cold and dark state:
and since I did that I didn't have any problems with the gear anymore.
It's indeed hard, if not impossible, to reproduce this problem but imho it's a bug. It just doesn't make sense whenever it happens.
JvanE... could you be more specific about the file and the location in that file where you made the above edit? I know just enough to be dangerous and don't wish to make matters worse. Appreciate the assistance!
Will do but unfortunately I won’t be able to check my files before tomorrow evening, maybe even Friday. Maybe someone else will chime in the meantime but otherwise I’ll post it here as soon as I can. I might give it a try off the top off my head but I don’t want to make matters worse.
Funny thing is, I had the exact issue witht he BOARDING state recently with said line " COPY #FlightControls_->gearPinsInstalled 0 ; stow gear pins" inserted into the script. Still had that issue for the very first time in maybe about 100+ flights. Should I encounter it again I'll try my best to report what I did before that. I kind of suspect either the script not loading correctly or GSX interfering with the Dash somehow....since GSX is a garbage piece of software that breaks your sim half the time.
Go to this folder: \Prepar3D v4\SimObjects\Airplanes\mjc8q400\scriptLib
Make a backup of the file called ccColdAndDark.mgs and then open the file (the original one, not the backup) with Notepad
Add the following line to the .mgs file. I'd do it near the end, below the last line that starts with COPY but before the line that says TEXT "COLD AND DARK COCKPIT CONFIG SCRIPT IS COMPLETE"'. Also be sure to add the two tabs before it (so it aligns with 'COPY' above it!
Save the file and you're done!
Thank You! Done.
Let's see how it goes.
This morning I'm making my regular daily run on VATSIM, the same flight pretty much over and over KPDX/CYVR. Two issues came up that forced me cancel the flight mid air.
The first is the gear would not go up, again. The pins are in the basket AND the above line has been edited in COLD AND DARK COCKPIT Config script.mgs. The gear lever is simply inop.
The other issue was watching not only my currently load flight plan, but all four of my stored flight plans vanish after doing a crossfill from Captains FMC to the FO FMC.
I also cross filled the fuel and those settings were lost too, on both FMS units.
I turned off, then back on, the FMC and made an attempt to reload from the company stored flight plans, none would load, even though they are listed.
Thoughts?
Thanks!
That gear issue is interesting since it's not related to the pins. It's the handle freezing. Had a few flights in the Q400 last month and it all worked flawlessly.