Caravelle mystery failures

[electra]

Hi from hot as an oven Phoenix,

I have been flying the Caravelle quite a bit lately, and finally solved an issue which some folks may have come across.  That is a mystery failure.  Here is typical example because it happened on every Caravelle I flew.  A flight - in this case an SAS with four stops enroute - will always loose its brakes after the second landing.  You touch down, and no brakes.  Or you brake on the runway, turn off on the taxiway, and suddenly there are no brakes.  For the longest time I could not figure out what was going on.  Starting as "cold" or "easy" made no difference.  The brakes would fail after one or two stops on a "string of pearls" flight with multiple stops.

On the Start and Failures Status drop down, I had selected no random failures.  Just loaded the plane, and usually started the engines and off I went.

Then, buried in the documents I found this one line - "Some typical failures events are preprogrammed into the aircraft".  So that was it, the aircraft was DESIGNED to crash.  No, no, no and again no.  One should never pre program any aircraft to fail.  That should always be left up to the user to decide.

So how to fix this issue:  In the Start and Failures Status drop down, select the bottom choice - Cancel all failures.  Then you press ONLY the exit button.  The documents will tell you to press the "Valid" button, and then exit - but this is wrong.  As soon as you press the "valid" button, the "cancel all failures" choice will instantly be deselected and you will have a plane in which something will fail even if you don't want it to. For some reason, the valid button cancels out the cancel all failures button.

So, to prevent random failures, as soon as the plane is loaded, go to the start and failures drop down, select cancel all failures, and then click only on the exit button.  You're choice will then be saved as long as you fly the plane in that session.  Be warned, you must do this each time you select the plane, or reload it.  Your choice is not remembered.

I hope this may help people who may have had failures on this aircraft and didn't know why, or how to prevent them.  One other thing, if you are using the CH products pro pedals, and your brake sensitivity is set too low, this will cause the Caravelle to emit a loud braking sound once you are past 40 knots or so on the ground.  Setting the brake sensitivity to 90% or more prevents this issue.

Cheers,

Mike

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

"INTERESTING" analysis .... and details all noted Mike.

Not saying you're right .... or wrong .... but the procedure I use (possibly slightly different from what your doing), and have recommended be used since we first began introducing the CARAVELLE's during 2008/9, is as per our following-linked forum based manual/guide (not from the official BG manuals which accompany each panel version) ....


FORUM BASED MANUAL/GUIDE
tonymadgehjg.proboards.com/thread/2939/caravelle-panel-installation-handling-notes

To select the easy "COLD START" engine startup option simply mouse click on the "FAIL" icon. This will result in the following engine startup and systems failure screen selection screen then being presented over the Main Panel ....



For automatic engine startup and the configuration of all essential aircraft systems simply select "ON" each of selectable tabs associated with each of the following items/functions and as appear illuminated in the above image ....

- "EASY START ALL SYSTEMS AND ENGINES ON

- "ENGINES AUTOSTART"

- "ELEC AUTO"

- "HYDR./AIR AUTO"

Then select "VALID"

Then select "EXIT". All other "FAILURES" options can remain selected "OFF" .... unless specifically desired.

This will result in the Failure Options screen closing and the following clean panel view then being presented ....

At this point all essential aircraft systems will have been activated and the aircrafts engines will .... automatically .... begin spooling up individually.

No further intervention is necessary during this engine startup phase.

Upon the completion of engine startup all that then remains to be done is the manual setting of flaps, T/O trim setting, and aircraft external lighting.

In adopting the procedure I use, and recommend, I've never, ever, suffered a single failure of any kind.

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[electra]

Hi, thanks for your reply Mark.

So it appears there are two ways to fix this issue.

First off, all of my Caravelles were downloaded in November 2022, so they are "fresh".

The only failure I experienced was brake failure, and it was only on a multi stop long flight.  Example, SAS from Copenhagen to Istanbul.  Copenhagen cold start, brakes always good.  Dusseldorf stop the brakes were always fine on landing, taxi, startup and departure. Next stop, Vienna - 90% of the time the brakes failed on the runway.  Rarely they worked on landing and taxi, but failed on startup and departure.  Istanbul, brakes always failed 100% of the time.

This never occurred on a "point A to point B" flight.  Only happened on long, multi stop flights.

Finally I saw in the documents on the "Failures" page on the fourth paragraph "Some typical failure events are pre-programmed.  Select the CANCEL ALL FAILURES mode (and VALID) to stop all failures."  The "Valid" button works to save every selection other than the "Cancel all failures" selection.  Hitting the valid button automatically deselects your choice but ONLY on that choice.  I found that only hitting the "exit" button will save the "cancel all failures" choice.  That will last only as long as FS is open.

I can only assume that either the brakes gauge, or some master control gauge has a pre-programmed fail event in it that is triggered by a timer.  I have seen a few other aircraft use this simple timer to trigger an event.  Normally I would open up the gauge and edit it to read no failures, but on these gauges I can't.

The failed brakes was the only failure I encountered over dozens of flights.  So good to know there are two ways to solve this issue, because the exact same plane will behave differently on different computers.  Some people have issues that I never run across, and I have issues they never have.  Its just the randomness of FS I presume.

By the way, I always now start the Caravelle cold.  I like to fly by schedule and I like the cold startup procedure.  I have been doing it so many times  I no longer need the hints.  Its just like a robot flicking buttons.  These Caravelles are like a piano, the only way to play one correctly is practice, practice, practice!

Cheers from the desert,

Mike