Updated SkySim McDonnell Douglas DC-9 procedure
After a night spent tinkering, crashing (the aircraft), suffering engine-shutdowns, and slowly absorbing information from the manual about the DC-9, I have updated the start-up procedure document - you can grab it from the link below:
https://ko-fi.com/s/75922acb1b
Here’s a few thoughts, and lessons learned so far, should you start the good fight with this aircraft too:
The avionics and systems work surprisingly well, and are fully featured. If you have experience of the Leonardo MD-80 family, or the Boeing 737s, it’s not a huge stretch to get the DC-9 up and running - it’s similar in many regards (management of APU, air pressure to start engines, introduction of fuel, bus transfer, etc).
The visual model of the aircraft is functional, but lacks the polish of some of the more recent aircraft - I may be wrong, but I wonder if it’s an older aircraft, upgraded for Flight Simulator 2020/24 ?
It would appear - and this is based on both reading and experience in the aircraft within the simulator - that leaving a fuel boost pump on for an empty central fuel tank will cause engine shut-down. Activating cross feed between fuel tanks will not resolve this. You need to be careful to turn the boost-pumps off before tanks are emptied.
As I said in the most recent live-stream - I really like the aircraft. You can see how operating it correctly will be satisfying - and it’s mechanical enough in nature, that it’s not a total mystery - there are obvious reasons for it’s behaviours.
Anyway.
There it is :) Looking forward to JustFlight re-releasing their Fokker F28 now, or Leonardo releasing their MD-80 family of aircraft.