Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Flying Guide Introduction

Welcome to this guide, which is essential reading if you are to get the most out of this aircraft in FSX. In particular there are important configurations, both before starting FSX, and then within FSX itself, which we recommend you set before your first flight in the Duke. This guide covers all the relevant pre-flight settings required in order for you to take advantage of the wealth of features included in this package. It is also written in plain, non-technical language and is designed to be useful for both experienced and less experienced pilots and virtual pilots. RealAir Simulations is an enthusiastic supporter of jargon-free, intelligent use of English and we avoid phrases which are unnecessarily obscure or deliberately over-technical for the sake of it. If you need more in depth information about the Duke we provide a number of other documents within this package: A Pilots Operating Handbook Checklists PDF containing all the relevant real-world checklists for the Duke B60, a Pilots Operating Handbook Charts PDF containing all the relevant charts for the Duke B60, an Autopilot Guide, and within FSX there is a reference document and checklists, both accessed from the kneeboard within FSX.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Quick Start Summary

If you want to check out the Duke for a quick flight before reading this guide then please observe the following minimum requirements in order to see and fly the Duke as intended: In the aircraft display menu please set the 3D Virtual Cockpit to show high resolution. In the aircraft/realism menu set the general realism slider to maximum (fully right), and the p-factor/torque sliders to between two thirds and maximum.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

RealAirs Development of the Beechcraft Duke

The Duke is RealAirs first piston twin-engined aircraft simulation and its development has taken a total of two years. Our aim was to offer the most satisfying simulation of a piston twin aircraft yet available for FSX and meticulous attention has been paid to the integration of every possible aspect of operating this classic Beechcraft aircraft, so that the visual aesthetics, sounds, cockpit and panel, animations and flight model all contribute equally to the highest standards possible within FSX constraints. Here is a summary of the key features which the RealAir Duke offers you as an FSX virtual pilot: High resolution exterior and interior 3D model and textures, many of which are 32-bit yet delivering a good frame rate on current computer systems with a typical high quality 3D graphics card. A flawless, beautifully rendered virtual vockpit and panel with true-3D gauges, levers, switches and controls, all animated with very smooth motion. A flight model with all the usual RealAir features but now including accurate single-engine asymmetrical performance, highly detailed flight control that is a joy to fly and pleasure to handle, and with the new addition of options for either conventional FSX rudder and nose wheel ground steering or passive nose wheel with differential pedal braking. For the first time in FSX to our knowledge, a sound suite that is ultra wide panned in full stereo, so that the left and right engine and other interior sounds are totally separated in the straight ahead view position, and with new innovations that enhance the stereo effect, together with full stereo separation of engine and other sounds in spot view, the whole suite being co-ordinated and fine tuned so that the sounds match perfectly both inside and out. Bump mapping which captures the look of stretched metal skin both over on the wings and along the fuselage, typical of the Dukes real world counterparts construction.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Brief History of the Beechcraft Duke

The Duke was designed as a progression from Beechcrafts Baron and the prototype first flew as long ago as 1966. The B60 Duke, which is the variant we simulate here, was the final variant and had full pressurisation and improved turbocharged Lycoming TIO-541 engines producing a maximum 380 hp each. Although loved and cherished by its owners, due to its graceful looks, excellent manners and beautifully styled interior, the Duke was not a sales success. Some say this was due to its complicated and expensive servicing requirements. As a result only 584 were ever made of which 350 were B60 versions, and production of all Dukes ceased in 1982. Despite this, the Duke remains one of the most highly regarded and most admired twins of its type in general aviation. The Duke is still flown today by enthusiastic owners. For detailed specifications, pilots reference and summary pilots operating procedures please see the accompanying PDF guides within this package and the knee-board pilot notes and reference within FSX.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Installation
Once you have downloaded the RealAir Simulations Duke exe installer file to a location on your hard drive, click on that file and the installation will be fully automated. You will be asked to confirm your Keycode and account details, then confirm the location of your FSX folder. Please Note: You do not have to point the installer to the simobjects\airplane folder within FSX. The installer just needs the location of your main FSX folder, for example: C:\FSX. The installer will automatically detect where this folder is located so except in rare cases do not change this directory. Once installation is complete this will be confirmed on your screen and a configuration panel will pop up (there will also be a link to this panel on your Windows desktop and in the Windows Start Menu for future use).

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Config Panel
This panel is used to choose various options and to re-read this guide or other documents. We recommend that you spend a couple of minutes looking at the available options which must be chosen then saved BEFORE you start FSX if you wish these options to appear when you load the Duke. Any time you need to refresh your mind on specifications, or change the options, simply click the link to this panel before you run FSX then save your settings before running FSX.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Loading the Duke in FSX

After starting FSX, we recommend loading a default aircraft like the Cessna 172 before loading the Duke for the first time, although on some systems you will find this step to be unnecessary. You have several liveries to choose from in the aircraft menu. For all the Duke variations to be displayed you must set your aircraft menu to show all variations. You can choose from the all menu, or from manufacturers menu or from the bespoke RealAir menu. Thereafter we recommend saving a flight in FSX with the Duke placed at your favourite airport or a scenario of your choice. Please note that many of the display options are not saved with, and are independent from, saved flights. So to run the Duke you will need to make sure the following options are enabled within FSX:

Display Settings
Under Settings/Display/Aircraft: Hi-res 3D cockpit: ON. Under Settings/Display/Graphics: Light Bloom: OFF (unticked). We recommend turning this setting off because the exterior textures appear much too bright when light bloom is enabled. Anti-aliasing: ON (ticked). This is essential to getting the most out of the 3D gauges. 2xAA is sufficient but the higher the AA the better as long as it doesnt reduce framerates by too much. Alternatively you can set your graphics drivers to override this anti-aliasing setting which generally gives the option of much higher anti-aliasing values. Anisotropic Filtering: On. Helps reduce gauge shimmering.

Aircraft Realism Settings

General Realism Slider: MAXIMUM. P-factor and Torque: between two thirds and MAXIMUM. Gyro drift: 50%. Auto rudder: OFF (if you have pedals or twistgrip on your joystick). Auto mixture: OFF. Crash and Collision Detect: OFF.

Notes: It is extremely important to set the general realism slider to maximum (and that means the slider should be fully right with not even a tiny amount less than maximum). The reason for this is that the RealAir Duke flight model is absolutely reliant for accuracy and many aerodynamic features upon this setting. If this setting is not at absolute maximum many features which will make this aircraft realistic to fly will be disabled. Crash and collision detect must be off in order for you to experience the result of gear up landings which the RealAir Duke simulates accurately. If you wish the Tooltip pop-ups to describe the function of all the cockpit levers, controls,

gauges and switches, please enable tool tips in your FSX menu. This will help you quickly identify all the many working features of this simulation. Please Note: Tooltips do not work when FSX is set to DirectX 10 Preview. This is a bug with the DX10 implementation of FSX which we cannot overcome, and it affects all aircraft in FSX. We recommend setting the VC as the default view in FSX. To do this go to Settings Display/Aircraft and under Default cockpit view make sure 3-D virtual cockpit is selected. With this setting, once the Duke has loaded you will be sitting in the VC view. With the Duke and all RealAir FSX aircraft, it is very important that bump mapping and reflection mapping are enabled in your display driver settings. By default bump mapping and reflection mapping are enabled, but many flight simulation forum users recommend turning one or both of these off via your display drivers to increase framerates in FSX. While this may help framerates, the sacrifice is large you may be missing a lot more than you realise. Usually you need a special display driver tweaking utility such as RivaTuner or Rage3D to disable bump mapping and reflection mapping, so if you havent played around with these or similar programs you should be OK. If you do have one of these programs installed, open it up and double check to make sure that bump mapping and reflection mapping are enabled. If bump mapping or reflection mapping are disabled you will find the VC graphics to look very flat and lifeless, not at all as we intended. To double check, have a look at the wing in the VC. If it is totally flat with no detail at all then bump mapping has somehow been disabled. If this is the case we cannot offer personalised support to help you enable bump mapping as there are too many possible variations that are beyond our control.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Virtual Cockpit
In the RealAir Dukes virtual cockpit, you will find an environment in which the views are crisp, clear, beautifully curved and moulded, and there are controls which are smoothly animated and a pleasure to use. All the gauges, gauge needles and so on are truly three dimensional. That is to say that if you zoom in and angle or pan your view, every aspect of the gauges maintain a realistic degree of depth. The panel layout reflects a typical Beechcraft Duke IFR panel as you would see it today. Most currently operating Dukes have had their original gauges and radios replaced with more modern equivalents at least once. This is also the case with our simulated version of the Duke. Many of the original flight/nav gauges have been replaced with more modern Bendix/King gauges while the antiquated radios in the original Duke have been replaced with digital Bendix/King units. A Garmin GPS 500 is also present on the panel, which obviously wouldnt have been fitted to a Duke at time of manufacture. The panel in our Duke reflects a fairly typical panel upgrade as would be seen in a Duke that is operating currently. It was designed to have good ergonomics during IFR flight. Almost all Dukes are privately ownedit is very rare to see a rental Duke so the condition of the panel and cockpit in our version simulates a well looked after privately owned aircraft. The condition of the panel, cockpit and exterior is high with only minor wear. Every switch, gauge, dial etc can be operated via the virtual cockpit. The primary flight instruments are mirrored from the pilots seat (left) to the co-pilots seat (right), but the panel is designed around the pilots seat especially for IFR flight.

The GPS 500 can be switched on/off via a switch on the top/left of the GPS unit (the switch is marked by a small c). Unfortunately the FSX GPS screen can appear to shimmer slightly when zoomed out. We did our best to reduce this shimmering as much as possible but we couldnt get rid of it completely. If the shimmering bothers you and youre not using the GPS the best thing to do is to switch the GPS off.

Why No 2d Panels?
RealAir Simulations was one of the first developers to abandon the old-style traditional 2D panels in both FS9 and FSX. Our reasoning was this: We make our 3D virtual cockpits and panels so smooth, efficient and life-like that there is simply no need for the old style 2D panels. We give you options in our various views to focus in on a fixed 3D view just like the traditional panels used to appear in flight simulator. But the difference is that our 3D panels are sharper, clearer and run more smoothly than any of the older style panels, thus making 2D panels in our aircraft entirely redundant. If you are new to this concept we urge you to compare and see the difference! Not only can you pan, zoom and position yourself wherever you choose, but you can also cycle through many view options, some of which are fixed views that enable you to concentrate on the task in hand. For more information see the Views sections of this guide. The Dukes gauges are all created as 3D objects with animated parts, in exactly the same way a 3D modeller would create a retractable undercarriage, aileron or flap for an FSX aircraft. This means that the gauges are not only truly three dimensional, but the needle movement is tied in to your core flight simulator frame rate to give the smoothest gauge animation possible. For example, if you are able to run FSX at 30 frames per second then

your gauges will update at 30fps. If you can run FSX at 90fps then the gauges will also update at 90fps. In effect this means the gauge animations appear completely smooth. By contrast the gauges in most FSX virtual cockpits are made as two dimensional gauges which are then applied to flat surfaces on the VC panel. Gauges made in this way are limited to a maximum of 18fps but in practice they often refresh at an even lower rate than that, so they tend to appear jerky in their movement.

Custom Animations
There are a few unique animations in the VC view: Cabin Door: The Cabin door can be opened by clicking on the door handle and closed by clicking on the exposed part of the open door. The cabin door cannot be opened fully above 30kt. If you leave the cabin door open prior to takeoff, the cabin door will be blown shut as the speed increases! If this happens it will still be slightly ajar. Click on the door handle or press Shift-E to close it properly. Folding Table: You can open/close the folding table located on the right-hand cabin wall by clicking on it with your mouse. Armrests: You can lower/raise the armrests by clicking on them. Sun Visors: These handy visors for cutting down the glare when facing the sun can be flipped down, or up, by clicking the mouse on them.

Gauges, Radios and Control Functions with the Mouse

RealAir has a custom method by which the above controls can function and it is based on a standardised RealAir system that has proven to be extremely popular with our users in the past, and this method has now been updated and adjusted with increased user-friendliness for the Duke. Unlike default FS systems it does not rely on you finding a restricted, small or hard-to-find zone with the mouse. All our mouse activity zones are large and easily found by simply hovering the mouse directly on the relevant gauge, control or switch. All of the instruments in the Dukes VC feature a mouse interaction technique unique to RealAirs FSX aircraft. It works as follows: For on/off switches: Simply click on the switch as usual. For rotary adjustment knobs: For example, the VOR course knob, plus many more: To INCREASE the value, left click and drag UP. To DECREASE the value, left click and drag DOWN. For rotary knobs with an inner and an outer knob: E.g. the tuning knobs on the nav/com radios. To INCREASE the INNER KNOB value, LEFT click and drag UP. To DECREASE the INNER KNOB value, LEFT click and drag DOWN. To INCREASE the OUTER KNOB value, RIGHT click and drag UP. To DECREASE the OUTER KNOB value, RIGHT click and drag DOWN. In practice this works as follows: To tune the nav or com WHOLE digits, LEFT click and drag on the knob. To tune the nav or com FRACTION digits, RIGHT click and drag on the same knob. This might sound a little complicated at first, but after a couple of minutes youll find this approach simple, intuitive, fast and precise. It allows the radios in particular to be adjusted in a realistic way without having to search for invisible click spots. In response to customer feedback the mouse click and drag feature has been updated slightly for the Duke compared to our previous FSX aircraft. Most of the rotary knobs now have an acceleration feature, so the further you drag the mouse while making a change the faster the value changes. This means you dont need to drag the mouse far to make a large change, thereby reducing the likelyhood of running out of available screen space when dragging vertically. You may experience difficulty adjusting instruments in the VC when the camera view is moving around due to turbulence or g effects. To overcome this, switch to a differ ent VC view using the A key. All of the zoomed in views have the camera movement effect turned off to facilitate easy instrument mouse clicks.

Moving the Throttle, Prop and Mixture Levers

The throttle, prop and mixture levers are controlled in the following way: Throttle Levers: To move both left and right throttle levers in unison, left-click and drag on either throttle lever. To move just one throttle lever, right-click and drag on the desired lever. Propeller Levers: To move both left and right prop levers in unison,left-click and drag on either prop lever. To move just one prop lever, right-click and drag on the desired lever. Mixture Levers: To move both left and right mixture levers in unison, left-click and drag on either mixture lever. To move just one mixture lever, right-click and drag on the desired lever.

VC Gauge Shimmering
You may notice a slight shimmering on the VC gauges. This is an unwanted by-product of their high resolution graphics. This can be reduced by increasing anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering in your graphics driver control panel. Increasing these values has a very positive effect on FSX graphics in general, including the scenery, but it will reduce your framerates. Thankfully modern graphics cards are made to run high anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering values so with newer cards the framerate hit should be acceptable.

Virtual Cockpit Construction Details

This VC is made similarly to how movie sets are made. It is meant to be viewed from one angle onlyin this case the front seats. If you move the eyepoint dramatically things will look odd or appear to be missing. These missing parts have been left out to improve performance and to allow the major design focus to be placed on the VC parts that really matterthe parts you can see from the front seats.

Virtual Cockpit Lighting

If the virtual cockpit panel appears too dark you can switch on the lights. To switch on cockpit flood-lighting click on the Cockpit Lights switch just to the left of the throttle levers. To turn the gauge back-lighting on click on the Panel Lights switch next to the cockpit lights switch or press Shift-L. A feature of the gauge back-lighting in the RealAir Duke is that it works at all times, day or night, as it would in real life. In contrast the back-lighting in most other FSX aircraft only works at night time.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Views
When you load the Duke, FSX defaults to the pilot VC view (left seat), or in some cases a notice appears telling you to press A for the default VC view. Press A once, if that is the case, to access your primary and most important view, from which you can fly the aircraft, take-off, land and taxi. If you wish to fly or taxi from the co-pilot seat, press the A key again and the next view is from the right hand seat. This view is very useful, for example, when making right hand turns on to a final approach, where the co-pilot has a better view. For other views press key A yet again, or to reverse the cycle of views, press Shift A. These focus more closely on a number of fixed views in order to see various functions, gauges and switches. Every switch or function has at least one view where you can see and use the relevant control. Here is a list of the interior views, which cycle step by step with the A key or cycle in reverse with the Shift A keys: Pilot View (left seat) Co-pilot View (right seat) IFR Main Instruments Radios and GPS Light Switches Environment Controls (pressurisation and heating) Fuel Selector Switches Rear Window (right rear seat looking out the window over the wing) Cabin View (right rear seat looking forward)

External Views
The Duke exterior views are similar to the standardised FSX views except that we have added some additional ones so you can see the Duke from behind, the front and from the side. There are many tips and tricks published on the subject of creating your own exterior extra views which can be found on websites such as www.avsim.com and www.flightsim.com

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

RealView
RealView is a system developed by RealAir that simulates the forces experienced by a pilot in-flight. This latest version has been simplified for use in FSX. Our FS2004 products include a version of RealView that gives the impression of the pilots head (that is, your head!) being pushed around by the movement of the aircraft in response to pitch and yaw. We have deleted this feature from the FSX version of RealView because FSX ships with a camera system that achieves exactly the same result and works just as well as our FS2004 RealView system, except in the following area...

Stall Buffet
The RealView stall buffet effect exclusive to our FS2004 aircraft remains in FSX. A similar effect is not included in FSX by default. The RealView stall buffet feature is linked to the flight model stall buffet function. When the Duke reaches very high angles of attack or is close to the stall you will see the whole aircraft Virtual Cockpit mildly shake, accompanied by stall buffeting sounds. You can alter the strength of the RealView Stall Buffet effect (from off to very strong) using the Duke Config Panel. See the Config Panel section of this guide for info on how to do this.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Pressurisation
The Duke features a pressurised cabin. This means the pilot and occupants of the Duke can fly at high altitudes without the need for oxygen masks.

A basic explanation of how the cabin pressurisation works is as follows: Pressurised air for the cabin is taken from the turbocharger compressor of each engine before being routed into the cabin. On the aft cabin bulkhead are mounted two valvesthe outflow control valve and the safety valve. The Pressurisation Controller regulates the outflow valve to maintain the selected cabin pressure or cabin altitude while the safety valve is connected to the dump switch as well as the landing gear safety switch. Cabin pressurisation is expressed in terms of cabin altitude. A cabin altitude of 10,000ft means the air pressure in the cabin is the same as it would be at 10,000ft outside the aircraft. Increasing air pressure in the cabin reduces cabin altitude. The Duke cabin has a maximum pressure differential of 4.7psi, which basically means the maximum possible difference between cabin pressure and outside air pressure is 4.7psi. In practical terms this means the Duke can maintain a cabin pressure equivilant to sea level while flying at 10,000ft (that is a cabin altitude of 0ft), and at the Dukes service ceiling of 30,000ft it can maintain a cabin pressure equivilant to roughly 13,000ft (cabin altitude of 13,000ft) The pressurisation controls are mounted on the bottom-right of the panel between the thottle quadrant and the copilots yoke. The controls are as follows: Altitude Selector: Click and drag on the knob in the centre of this control to set the desired cabin altitude. This gauge has an inner and an outer reading - the outer reading represents

the selected cabin altitude while the inner reading indicates the corresponding aircraft altitude where the maximum pressure differential will occur. Rate Control: On the bottom left of the Altitude Selector is the rate control knob. This regulates the rate at which cabin pressure ascends or descends to the selected cabin altitude. When the arrow points straight up cabin altitude will climb/descend at a rate of 500fpm. Cabin Climb Indicator: This gauge shows how quickly the cabin altitude is rising or falling. Cabin Altitude Indicator: This gauge displays the current cabin altitude on the outer scale, and the current pressure differential on the inner scale. Cabin Pressure Dump Switch: When pressed this will dump cabin pressure, causing the cabin pressure to be equal to the outside air pressure.

Using the Pressurisation Controls

Before takeoff, set the Altitude Selector to either the desired cabin altitude (outer scale) or the planned cruising altitude (inner scale) plus 500ft. Before descent to landing, the outer scale should be set to the field elevation plus 500ft. Use the Rate Control to adjust how quickly the cabin pressure increases (Cabin Altitude descends) or decreases (Cabin Altitude ascends). If the cabin differential pressure reaches its maximum and the aircraft is still climbing the cabin altitude will climb with the aircraft altitude. When cabin altitude goes over 10,000ft an annunciator labelled CABIN ALT will light on the main annunicator panel. With maximum pressure differential this will occur at approximately 25,000ft aircraft altitude. Warning: If you attempt to open the cabin door the cabin will rapidly de-pressurise!

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Flying the Duke Manual Operations

Although the Duke is a twin, provided the engines are functioning normally there is little difference between operating this type and single engine types until of course things start to go wrong! The following paragraphs describe operating procedures where they relate to FSX. Many, but not all, of the actual Duke procedures are emulated in this simulation. For detailed procedures please refer to the included Pilots Operating Handbook and pilots reference and checklist which you can access from the kneeboard within FSX. If you wish to operate the Duke Cold and Darkwhich is loading the Duke with engines, systems and electrical power off, there are two alternatives: One is to simply choose the Cold and Dark starting option in the configuration panel before you run FSX. The other is to load the Duke then switch off the engines, avionics, pumps, generators, then the battery, then save the flight after moving to the airfield of your choice. Thereafter you can load this flight whenever you wish to fly by the book and add pre-set scenarios at any chosen airport and in any weather conditions. (Please see FSXs excellent help files and videos for more information). Starting up from cold is done in this way: 1. From the left hand seat, switch on the battery then the two gen switches on the console to the left of the pilots yoke. Switch on the left and right boost pumps. Check that the prop controls are set fully forward (fine) and the mixture levers are also fully forward. Make sure parking brakes are set. Then start the left engine by hovering the mouse over the left starter switch, left click and drag. The left engine will start and stabilise. Repeat the procedure with the right engine. Check the temperature, pressure and other engine gauges needles are in the green area after the engines are warmed up. 2. Release the parking brakes and carefully increase throttles. 3. Taxi and proceed with planned flight. For more specific Duke starting and operating procedures please refer to the included Pilots Operating HandbookChecklists, or the kneeboard checklist within FSX, both of which give you more detailed information about start up procedures. Please Note: Due to differences between real world operation and limitations within FSX, the above description takes into account the fact that the mixture controls in FSX need to be forward from idle in order for the engines to start. On the real Duke the start up mixture control procedure is somewhat different. The inherent limitations of FSX prevent us from applying this precise procedure by the book. Please refer to the Pilots Operating Handbook and Checklists to review the real world start up requirements. In most other respects the above represents the correct way to start up.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

General Flying Tips in FSX

When you load the Duke from any other flight or aircraft, it will have the weight of two pilots and two passengers, even if you previously added or subtracted passengers or crew. To load up with a set number or preferred weights of passengers and/or luggage please go to the aircraft menu and adjust the load, then SAVE a flight. In the case of fuel loading it is different. The Duke will load with the same percentage of total fuel available as the last aircraft you flew had, whether it was a Jumbo Jet or a Piper, but you can over-ride this by again saving a flight with manually set fuel loads.

Taxiing
The Duke will taxi much like any other piston prop FSX aircraft. As with most GA aircraft in FSX there is quite a sensitive link between the rudder and nose wheel, so care is need when steering on the ground. However, for the first time, we have included the option of steering with a passive nose wheel and differential braking, which is a far more satisfying way of handling this aircraft. For further information about using this option, please see the section about the configuration panel above, and the section about the differential braking option below.

Trim
The elevator trim control is best assigned to a dedicated repeat switch on your joystick. We recommend setting the repeat slider on this control (within FSXs control/assignments menu) to halfway. This generally provides a very usable trim control which you will find is excellent for manually setting trim as you fly. You can also use the mouse to turn the trim control wheel which is placed below and to the right of the pilots yoke. In addition there are, close to the main trim wheel, two smaller trim wheels for aileron and rudder trim. You will rarely need to use the aileron trim unless you have an asymmetrical fuel or passenger load. It might be necessary to use a tiny amount of right rudder trim while climbing out in order to counteract the very small amount of p-factor effect, assuming you are flying manually and not on autopilot. If using autopilot then the a/p itself will damp out any tendency to swing due to p-factor or torque, especially if you select the Yaw Damper switch ON.

Take-Off
Fully loaded with fuel and passengers, the Duke usually requires one notch of flaps for takeoff (this setting is recommended for all take-offs as a matter of course but is vital if you are fully loaded). A full complement of passengers will make the Duke somewhat tail heavy and you will therefore need very little up-trim before take off. Too much trim could result in overrotation with disastrous results. With just two pilots and no passengers you will need just a little up trim to assist take off, but not much. Since the stall speed, fully loaded, with one notch of flaps is approaching 85 knots, you will need around 90 knots airspeed before you begin rotate. Always rotate gently. The Duke will become airborne without fuss and you do not need to yank on the yoke. Once positive climb is established, restrict climb rate so you are steadily accelerating and deploy gear up. Once safe airspeed is established you can clean up the flaps and select a higher climb rate. The Dukes powerful engines exert both a p-factor and torque effect on the motion of the aircraft, especially at low speeds on the ground and with high angles of attack when airborne. However the initial tendency to swing left largely disappears as you gain speed down the runway for take off, and this tendency can easily be compensated for with a little right rudder. As you rotate, the higher angle of attack will also promote another brief moment of p-factor swing to the left, but in the Duke this is not a serious issue.

Cowl Flaps
The RealAir Duke is equipped with cowl flaps, which assist engine cooling and help regulate cylinder head temperature when airborne. The cowl flap switches, to the left of the pilot, have three settings: OFF, HALF and FULLY OPEN. Cowl flap management is important in keeping the engine operating at optimum temperature, which is in the upper range of the green area on your two Cylinder Head Temperature (CHT) gauges. Several combined factors influence the CHT and they can be summarised as follows: Climbing on full power at low speed requires Cowl Flaps to be opened, since there is not enough air flow to cool the engine. Cruising at high speed generally cools the engine without the need for Fully Open Cowl flaps. Descending at low speed with idle throttle will require Cowl Flaps to be either half or fully open since again there is insufficient air flow to cool the engine. The recommeded procedure for the operation of Cowl flaps are found in the Pilots Operating Handbook.

Power Management
The RealAir Duke fully simulates the effects of outside air temperature on engine performance. For example if you take off with an outside air temperature approaching freezing, the engines will have considerably more power and this will be reflected in the shorter take off run and much better climb rate than the published one. Conversely, if you take off when the outside temperature is, say, 85 degress farenheit, available power will be reduced and climb rate will be somewhat lower than the normal specifications.

Climbing Out
Climb rates and speeds are according to conditions, load and other factors. Please see the Pilots Operating Handbook for more details. Generally speaking, the Duke has a good climb rate and you can expect 1600 feet per minute or more depending on load and altitude at take-off. There is no definitive climb speed, as this depends on variable conditions, but as a yardstick, 120-140 knots is a good average. The Duke is permitted to use full and continuous maximum power of 41.5 inches manifold pressure at 2900 rpm in the climb but this creates undue wear on the engine. For a more fuel efficient normal climb set cruise climb which is 35.5 inches and 2750 rpm. The Pilots Operating Manual has more thorough details on this.

Prop and Mixture Settings

FSX, and FS9 before it, tend to exaggerate the need to lean mixture while climbing. On many real aircraft, and especially on turbocharged aircraft like the Duke, leaning should not be required, though can be selected, until typically between 9,000 feet and 11,000 feet is attained. Unfortunately the mixture routine in FSX does not reflect real-world specifications and we are unable to alleviate this weakness since mixture control is hard-coded into the core simulation. Generally speaking, the need to lean far earlier than is realistic is something you should be aware of when flying any piston propeller aircraft in FSX. You will realise the need to start leaning the engines when you hear a distinct drop in the engine note and possibly an indication from the drop in Manifold Pressure at higher altitudes that the mixture levers need to be gradually pulled back. These levers need to be pulled even further back once the critical altitude is reached. This is the altitude after which the turbocharged engines cannot generate the same power they are capable of at sea level. At altitudes above this the Duke will require more radical leaning of the mixture and the manifold pressure will reduce even at full throttle. In the Duke the critical altitude is around 17,000 feet above sea level at standard temperature. Note 1: In order to operate the mixture controls manually it is essential to turn off Automixture in your FSX aircraft/realism menu. Note 2: Due to FSX limitations, the mixture control must be fine tuned along with the prop controls and throttle settings in order to acquire the correct power, fuel flow and rpm. In FSX they are inter-related somewhat more than is so in real world operations. In order to set the correct fuel flow, first set the manifold pressure and prop rpm to the desired value. Then slowly lean the mixture until you see a rise in fuel flow and hear a rise in engine note. Then

lean a little more until the rpm and fuel flow begins to drop. In this way you will find the optimum economical full flow and the rpm will settle a little lower. You can then fine tune the props so that the precise desired rpm is achieved.

Power Settings at High Altitude

From around 18,000 feet upwards the manifold pressure will begin to reduce even if you are applying full throttle. This is normal and is the consequence of operating in thinner air. As you reach the Dukes ceiling of 30,000 feet the manifold pressure will drop to around 25-26 inches hg. In the real Duke the reading would be more accurately 29-30 inches. This is a limitation of the power and mixture coding within FSX, but we made efforts to make this as realistic as possible within those limitations.

Cruising
As you reach high altitudes the need for mixture leaning will increase gradually until even at almost full lean, the manifold pressure is dropping. This, essentially, is what governs the engine ability to function beyond the published ceiling, in addition to airframe limitations and safe cruising speed at altitude. The published ceiling for the Duke is around 30,000 feet above sea level but more realistic practical cruise altitudes are typically a good deal less than this for two reasons: Firstly, the Dukes pressurisation system at very high altitudes puts greater stress on the fuselage and shortens its life, and secondly the pressurisation system is capable of maintaining safe air pressure at altitudes up to just below 25,000 feet. Above this altitude additional oxygen may be required to supplement the pressurisation system. Normal high cruise settings at Flight level 250 (25,000 feet above sea level) are typically 75% power which is full throttle using 34 inches manifold pressure at 2750 rpm. At this setting on a standard day (ISA) the fuel flow will be 22 gallons per hour per engine (or 110 PPH indicated) for a true airspeed of approximately 239 knots.

With a more typical lower altitude cruise for shorter journeys the settings will be, for example, 10,000 feet: 32 inches manifold pressure at 2750 rpm with a similar fuel flow of 22 gallons per engine per hour and a true airspeed of 206 knots. For more economical cruising a typical setting would be 55% power at 10,000 feet which equates to 27.6 manifold pressure at 2400 rpm with a fuel flow of 15-16 gallons per hour per engine and a true airspeed of 180 knots. Autopilot should be engaged in all stages of flight except for lower altitude manoeuvring, initial climb and last stages of descent and final approach, where autopilot is optional depending on ILS or VOR approach requirements. Note: The Pilots Operating Handbook Charts PDF has some examples of cruise power settings for a number of scenarios for various altitudes, speeds, fuel economy and range. We recommend you look at these examples as a guide to more detailed procedures for climb and cruise management.

Descent and Approach

Reduce power and descend at discretion, but keep an eye on the engine cylinder head temperature which should remain in the green arc range. The cowl flaps can assist in keeping temperature stable. The engines should not be over-leaned for the descent. The gear and first stage of flaps can be deployed at speeds below 174 knots to aid a quicker descent. Set rpm to 2750 for the descent until close to joining a circuit or before ILS procedures when prop rpm can remain at 2750 rpm or be changed to full fine (2900 rpm) and full rich mixture should be set. Full Flaps can be deployed below 134 knots.

In the event of a go-around or balked landing RPM should be changed to 2900 before the go around and then full throttle applied. Typical final approach speed with flaps would be 98-102 knots with a heavy load and 85-90 knots full flap with a very light load. Stall speeds, at maximum weights, are: 85 knots clean. 75 knots gear down and full flap.

General Handling in FSX

The RealAir Duke responds very accurately and with beautifully harmonised controls in FSX and is easy to handle manually in all manoeuvres but autopilot is advised above 8000 feet due to controls becoming more sensitive the higher you fly (thinning air). You will find the Duke remarkably stable in all aspects of flight. There is a slight dihedral on the wings, which means, very slowly, the wings will return to level in normal conditions if you do not bank manually or move the ailerons. When turning manually, you will notice the ball on the slip indicator drifts in the direction of bank. We have made great efforts to make this indicator very accurate, and therefore, ideally a slight amount of rudder into the turn will centre the ball and balance the turn, although in practice this balancing is not always done on twins. Since a slight amount of rudder also creates a small banking moment, just the right amount of rudder will then counteract the tendency of the wings to return to level. A very satisfying and perfectly balanced turn can therefore be achieved with neutral aileron, a slight amount of rudder and slight back pressure, once the turn is established.

Special Handling Characteristics and Limitations

RealAir is well known for its ground breaking and innovative implementation of true spinning and side slipping in FS9 and FSX and remains one of the very few developers producing simulated aircraft with this capability. Although the Duke is not cleared for spinning or aerobatics, it IS cleared for slipping of a maximum 30 seconds duration. But whether it is cleared or not, we feel that all conventional aircraft should be simulated as having the capability of a deep stall, a spin, and side slipping because, whether deliberately provoked or not, these characteristics should always be reflected in the flight model where they are possible, since pilots make mistakes and we feel it is logical to simulate the aircrafts natural reaction to flying outside of its normal envelope, provided the required parameters do not upset normal flight simulation modelling. So we have modelled all three characteristics into the Duke. Here are the details:

Stalls
The RealAir Duke will stall predictably if the airspeed is allowed to decay and you keep the stick back and therefore promote an angle of attack higher than that at which the wing can produce lift. With light loads, the stall will be gentle but requires immediate recovery by a positive forward movement of the stick and increase in engine power until safe airspeed is achieved and the wings have gained lift. Do not pull back the stick strongly once flying speed is gained as you might promote yet another stall. Stalls with a full fuel and passenger load will be deeper and require more forward stick and increased power and airspeed to recover.

Spins
Although the Duke is not cleared for deliberate spinning, it WILL spin if you stall and then keep the stick pulled right back, especially if you also have up trim set higher than neutral and the wings are not perfectly level. If the wings are competely level then a spin is less

likely. With full rudder in either direction and stick fully back the spin will be substantial and will require standard recovery which is to ensure ailerons are neutral and push the stick forward until the spin rotation stops, and if necessary add some opposite rudder to speed the recovery process. Note: Trim in FSX has a profound influence on the likelyhood of promoting a spin. That is because, rather than trim in the simulator being purely a reliever of back pressure on the stick, it also tends to add to the total amount of available elevator authority. This subject is a controversial one, and there have been many discussions about what trim precisely does in FSX, but in practice, the higher the trim, the more likely a high angle of attack will promote either a wing drop or spin.

Side-Slipping
This manoeuvre is not recommended on twin engined aircraft, but in an emergency, or for training purposes, the Duke is cleared for a maximum 30 second side slip final approach where height needs to be lost rapidly. The technique is the same as for single engined aircraft: Cross the controls so that you are banked one way and yawing in the opposite direction. The slip angle will increase slightly with more power since the air stream from the props adds to the effectiveness of the rudder.

Special Stall Effects

In the Duke we have implemented an adapted version of pre-stall buffet effects seen in our other aircraft: the Spitfire, Scout, Decathlon, Citabria and Marchetti SF260. The approach of a stall will be accompanied by not just the stall warning buzzer but a mild aural and visual shaking effect which can be seen in the Virtual Cockpit. If you initiate recovery immediately after the onset of the buffet effect, a full stall will not develop. If you continue with a high angle of attack for more than three to four seconds after the buffet onset, a deep stall or possibly a spin might develop.

Accelerated Stalls
Turning steeply at low airspeed, especially with high loadings, will also result in pre-stall buffeting, which can develop very quickly into a wing drop, spiral dive or even a spin. As soon as you hear and see this effect while turning, then unload the elevator and if necessary increase power to recover full flying control.

Autopilot
The RealAir Duke comes with a fully functioning IFR autopilot. It has been tuned to provide a reliable, smooth and elegant deployment of autopilot functions. In most normal weather conditions, provided you do not fly the Duke beyond its recommended flight envelope, the autopilot will climb, descend and turn with absolute reliability. It will also capture and fly an automated ILS approach or NAV/VOR vector with safety, provided you follow correct procedures, set up your approaches in good time and do not operate the autopilot in weather, turbulence or cross winds beyond the capabilities of either the real aircraft or beyond the limitations of FSXs core autopilot routines. There is a detailed Autopilot guide within this package. We recommend you thoroughly absorb this document before attempting to fly the Duke in IFR conditions.

Lighting
The RealAir Duke has comprehensive lighting implementation which includes separate cabin lights and backlit gauges. You can have cabin lights on and gauge back lighting off, or both on, or just gauge lighting, which substantially adds to the atmosphere when flying after dusk or at night. The light switch console is below and slightly right of the pilots yoke. To access the switches for Cabin, Gauge, Landing, Nav and Strobe lights press key A until a suitable fixed view focussing on the lighting console appears. The lights can also be switched on and off using standard FSX key presses, but due to RealAirs custom lighting implementation not all of the standard key presses work in the same way as other aircraft. Please Note: The Nav and Strobe lights are operated by a three way switch. Position 1 is OFF. Position 2 is Nav lights only, and position 3 is Nav plus strobes.

Gear-Up and Emergency Landings

This simulation of the Duke includes full belly landing effects. While it is not possible to simulate undercarriage deployment failure, you can practice gear up landings by not selecting gear down and flying a careful approach for a gear up landing. In order for the effects to be seen and heard, please make sure you DISABLE collisions detection in the aircraft/realism menu and you switch to spot view just before runway contact to see the effect at its best. As the fuselage contacts the runway you will see and hear the effects of sparks, dust, dirt and smoke plus a wake trail or groove created by metal against tarmac behind the aircraft. The Duke will come to a shuddering halt, hopefully leaving you and your passengers unharmed if the landing is successful. Please note that limitations in FSX prevent the props from ceasing rotation if you didnt first feather the engines before ditching. Sea and lake gear up ditching can also be practised, with the Duke skimming the water surface and thereafter floating on the water when coming to rest.

Engine Shut-Down During Flight

We have designed the engine and flight model to closely simulate one or both engine shutdowns during flight. In this way you can practice single engined failure or failures of both engines before trying a glide approach and gear up or down landing. To shut down one or both engines, first reduce the appropriate throttle to idle, then reduce mixture control lever/s to zero then pull the levers back again. At this point the engine will not be firing but the prop will still turn, with appropriate sounds to indicate they are doing so. To completely feather the props (stop them turning) and thereby reduce prop drag, pull the prop lever or levers fully back then pull them back right to the red zone. The propellers will then slow and stop, whereupon you will hear just the ambient wind noise. To restart the engines if they are feathered, push the prop and mixture levers forward and deploy the starter motors. The starters will not be required if the props are not already feathered and are still turning, and if this is the case simply pushing the mixture controls forward should restart the engines. Please note that the prop angle actuators on the real Duke are deployed only when the propellers are turning and so you will not see the props twist with changes in prop lever positions while the props are stationary. Since the prop angle only changes when the propellers are in motion, the effect cannot be seen. This is perfectly real and normal.

Flying Asymmetrically On a Single Engine Engine Failure

You can practice the difficult art of flying the Duke on one engine after simulating a failure of either right or left engine. In this example we will simulate a failure of the left engine: As described above, reduce power on the left engine, then pull the left mixture lever fully back, then pull it again. The left engine will now fail. Next, pull the left prop lever back, then pull it again back to the red zone. This will feather the prop which produces less drag than having it turning in the air stream. Please Note: To pull an individual lever use the RIGHT mouse button.

The aircraft will now immediately yaw to the left, since the right hand engine, which is asymmetrically placed in relation to the centre of the aircraft, will exert a lateral, yawing moment. If you are flying straight and level then it will be easy to maintain altitude by using RIGHT rudder to counteract the right engine. However if you wish to climb, especially if you have a high fuel and passenger load, you will need considerable skill to keep the aircraft straight and be able to climb. If a climb is desired select full power on the right engine and balance the now more extreme yaw with a larger amount of right rudder. You will also need some aileron input to balance the rudder tendency to bank the aircraft to the right. In this situation, your climb rate will be restricted to around 350 feet per minute but only if you keep the airspeed on the BLUE line on the airspeed indicator. This line indicates the best rate of climb speed on a single engine. If you allow the speed to bleed off so that you are slower than the Blue line indicator, then the higher angle of attack will require even more rudder and this in turn creates even more drag. The result, if neglected, will be a rapid slowing of airspeed followed by an inevitable stall. In the same way, not applying enough rudder to counteract the assymetrical behaviour will result in the Duke sideslipping, which in turn results in higher fuselage drag. This will also decay forward speed. So the golden rule is to keep the ball centred and make forward motion as efficient as possible. A left engine failure is more serious than a right engined failure because you have the additional influence of p-factor and torque which has a tendency to turn the aircraft even more to the left, especially with higher angles of attack.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Sounds
With this release RealAir is proud to announce a new innovation for the Duke: We have designed a comprehensive sound suite which, for the first time to our knowledge, creates a uniquely wide stereo image of internal engine sound effects in FSX. Not only have we separated left and right engine sounds so that they deliver the widest possible stereo but we have also applied other techniques to ensure that both left and right engines have a spacial ambience which further enhances that separation. The result is, we hope, a truly dynamic sound system which vastly increases the immersion factor of the Duke simulation. In addition, every sound that benefits from true stereo has it. Even the flap and gear actuator sounds are separated so that there is a distinct sound effect for each individual left and right flap and gear motor. The same applies to the touchdown sounds and many other sound effects. The spot view sounds use FSXs new stereo sound cone implementation and as you pan around the aircraft you will hear a distinct change in stereo imaging and characteristics. Finally, the internal and external engine sounds have been finely tuned so that they match each other perfectly in terms of power settings and engine note. In order to balance the cockpit, engine and ambient sounds, please adjust the sliders within the sound menu to your preference. The ambient sounds refer to effects like wind and miscellaneous external noises. The engine sounds are self-explanatory, and the cockpit sounds refer to all panel and cabin generated sounds which are not engine sounds. In order to get the best from the Duke sound suite we recommend a dedicated internal or external sound card capable of producing multiple 16 bit 44.1k sampled sounds. Almost all modest sound blaster type sound cards can easily achieve this. However we cannot guarantee issue-free sound effects if you use on-board sound chips as, depending on your motherboard design, these chips often have a low specification and tend to steal RAM from your system in order to operate. Note: Due to FSX limitations it has not been possible to make the switches click except for the fuel boost pump and battery switches. FSX severely restricts the number of available sound channels. While this can be overcome with the complexities of custom programming, we avoided this route because we do not wish to add what we consider to be effects which could add to the burden on frame rates.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Using the GPS

At the centre of the Duke panel is the standard FSX GPS. Unlike the custom Duke gauges, the standard GPS has a tendency to shimmer on systems which do not have high levels of anti-aliasing. You can switch off the GPS if required by accessing the small on/off switch on the left side of the unit. On the right side is a NAV/GPS toggle switch. If this is set to Nav then the Duke autopilot is slaved to its own navigation gauges. If the switch is set to GPS then the Duke will follow the selected altitude on the autopilot but lateral navigation will be slaved to the GPS settings. The left and right arrows used to navigate the default FSX 2D GPS have been replaced with the RealAir click-and-drag mouse control feature as used on all the rotary knobs in the Duke VC. More specifically left-click and drag to rotate the outer knob, and right-click and drag to rotate the inner knob. Click the knob quickly to operate the cursor control. If you prefer the default FSX GPS navigation technique, you can access the default 2D FSX GPS by pressing Shift-2.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Differential Brake Steering Option

In response to the increasing popularity of using rudder pedals which have either a separate control for brakes and rudder, or for pedals operating brakes and joystick twistgrips controlling the rudder, we have for the first time offered the option of operating the Duke with either conventional rudder/nosewheel ground steering, or fully implemented differential braking which steers a passive nosewheel. You can select which option you prefer before you start FSX by opening the Duke configuration panel then choosing either option. The option of differential braking and steering does the following: Disengages the nosewheel from the rudder. Allows you to steer by using your pedals to apply the brakes on either the left main wheel or right main wheel, or a combination of both. Enables you to apply different amounts of braking effort on both or either main wheels. The nosewheel steers passively according to the amount of differential braking.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Frame Rates and Performance in FSX

The RealAir Duke exterior and virtual cockpits feature very high levels of detail and texture resolution. Testing has shown that despite the high quality textures, and the very high detail of the Dukes cockpit layout and panel, frame rates on the Duke are healthy, with flights on a typical dual core 3 GHz system with 2 gigabytes of RAM and for example an Nvidia 8800 graphics card producing typically 30-55 frames per second provided scenery is not set at maximum detail and traffic and other frame rate reducing features are set within modest limits. As with all FSX add-ons, everything is a trade off between detail and performance. We recommend setting anti-aliasing to at least 2x or if your graphics can handle it, 8xQ or 4x. If you see stuttering with this setting then it is almost bound to be caused by anti-aliasing putting too much strain on the system. You can reduce any shimmering on the Dukes gauges by adjusting not just anti-aliasing but also level of detail (LOD) and negative clamp settings, in addition to adjusting your anisotropic filtering. Please refer to your graphics card documentation to learn more about this subject. As with all RealAir aircraft simulations, we highly recommend keeping frame rates at a minimum of 26 fps and preferably 30 fps since much less than this results in the flight model not attaining sufficient smoothness for a realistic feel. Previous RealAir Simulations releases for FSX have used mostly 16bit compressed (DXT5) textures, and our FSX Spitfire had the option to install and run 32bit uncompressed textures. The Duke on the other hand contains a mix of 16bit DXT5 and 32bit textures as standard to maximise visual quality without harming performance. Our testing showed no noticable framerate improvement when running all 16bit DXT5 textures.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Known Issues
We have tested the Duke extensively with a wide range of systems and are confident that the only bugs are related to problems beyond our control. Below is a list of known issues: Landing lights - when looking at the exterior model from the front or side the halo effect around the landing light lamps may not appear where they should, they move around. This is an FSX bug and is beyond our control. Landing Lights - Some testers reported the beam of light that projects forward of the aircraft was displaying well to the side of the aircraft rather than directly in front of the aircraft. We tracked this down to a third-party addon that made global changes to the way FSX displays landing lights. This problem will not occur with a default install of FSX. The Duke landing lights are made in the standard way, in strict accordance with the FSX SDK, so we cannot be responsible for bugs created by global changes made by third-party developers. Landing Lights - Some testers reported the beam of light that projects forward of the aircraft wasnt displaying at all. This was again the result of a third party addon that made global changes to the way FSX displays landing lights. The beam of light from the landing/ taxi lights will appear directly in front of the aircraft with an unmodified FSX installation.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Support
Past experience suggests that over 90% of support queries we receive could generally have been solved by reading the included documents in our aircraft releases! We welcome both feedback and support queries via e-mail if you are a bone fide RealAir Simulations customer. But please do check the manuals and documents before contacting us with a problem. It is highly likely that you will find the answer within this guide and other included documents. If you have a support issue, please e-mail us with the following details: Your full name. Your order number or keycode. Date of order. Briefly describe the problem.

We always make efforts to answer queries as quickly as possible, and our average response time is often within a few hours and very rarely longer than 24 hours.

Beech Duke B60 for FSX

Credits
Sean Moloney - 3D Model Exteriors and Interiors, Textures, Cockpit, Panel, Gauges, Document Presentation, Webmaster and Website Design. Rob Young - Flight Aerodynamics, Sounds, Documents, Guides and Customer Support

Acknowledegements
We gratefully acknowledge the generous participation of our Duke testing team for this release: Grant MacLean David Voogd Robert Ginn Don Diedrich Deryl Crombie Jason Puckett

RealAir Simulations 2009