Simviation Forums

I noticed that the battery dies very fast when both of the engines and alternators fail. Is it like it in RL? It's impossible to reach any field in these conditions. I was practicing engine failures. Both of the engines failed, so I immediately pitched for my best gliding speed. I shut down fuel, closed the cowl flaps, turned magnetos off and after I feathered the propellers the alternator shut down completely. When I was preparing for landing, just as I wanted to extract the landing gear I noticed that the battery is dead. So fast? In 3-5 minutes?

I tried again but this time I tried turning off the battery until the time comes to extract the landing gear. When I turned it on again it was dead. How did it die if I turned it off?! It's not like this on Flying Lessons on the Emergency procedures lesson. I noticed that if I leave the propellers unfeathered the alternators will still work and the battery will work also. Is this realistic?

In a Cessna 172 the battery will never die in the air because you cannot feather the propeller and the alternator will work all the time. And why can't a Cessna feather it's propeller? Doesn't it produce much drag when windmiling and no thrust at all?

And is there a way to notify the ATC about my emergency? I know that squawk 7700 can be used in real or the 121.500 Mhz radio frequency but I tried doing it in FS2004 and none of it works.

I noticed that the battery dies very fast when both of the engines and alternators fail. Is it like it in RL? It's impossible to reach any field in these conditions. I was practicing engine failures. Both of the engines failed, so I immediately pitched for my best gliding speed. I shut down fuel, closed the cowl flaps, turned magnetos off and after I feathered the propellers the alternator shut down completely. When I was preparing for landing, just as I wanted to extract the landing gear I noticed that the battery is dead. So fast? In 3-5 minutes?

I tried again but this time I tried turning off the battery until the time comes to extract the landing gear. When I turned it on again it was dead. How did it die if I turned it off?! It's not like this on Flying Lessons on the Emergency procedures lesson. I noticed that if I leave the propellers unfeathered the alternators will still work and the battery will work also. Is this realistic?

In a Cessna 172 the battery will never die in the air because you cannot feather the propeller and the alternator will work all the time. And why can't a Cessna feather it's propeller? Doesn't it produce much drag when windmiling and no thrust at all?

And is there a way to notify the ATC about my emergency? I know that squawk 7700 can be used in real or the 121.500 Mhz radio frequency but I tried doing it in FS2004 and none of it works.

For your first problem, the landing gear.  It depends on the aircraft, but some planes use hydraulic or pneumatic systems to lower the gear, which won't have any pressure with a dead engine.  The solution then is to pump the gear down, using I believe Ctrl-G or Shift-G (check your assignments for sure.)  

The batteries will run down after an engine failure or alternator failure, and the procedure is to shut down whatever you don't need to save the battery (lights, radios, etc.)  You can't feather the prop in 172 because it is fixed, it does not move.  It does produce more drag with it spinning, but there isn't much you can do about that.

And FS ATC does not recognize emergencies, so squawking and changing frequencies doesn't do anything.

As for battery life, the short answer is that FS is unrealistically short.

As for battery life, the short answer is that FS is unrealistically short.

To make it 'unrealistically long' you can add this line to the [Electrical] section.  

electric_always_available = 1  

Dave

cessna bats will die if there not being charged .the poh of the aircraft says to shut everything off..if every thing is turnd off until you need them you would get about 20 min to a half hour of bat life..the gryos use most of the continious power3 to 5 min  if the bats were week too begin with and the gyros were left on .. ..the engine will continue to run as they are being fired form another system (as you know) and the handbook does tell you to land as soon as possable.make sure you shut off the gyros and try it again regards 727 driver

I noticed that the battery dies very fast when both of the engines and alternators fail. Is it like it in RL? It's impossible to reach any field in these conditions. I was practicing engine failures. Both of the engines failed, so I immediately pitched for my best gliding speed. I shut down fuel, closed the cowl flaps, turned magnetos off and after I feathered the propellers the alternator shut down completely. When I was preparing for landing, just as I wanted to extract the landing gear I noticed that the battery is dead. So fast? In 3-5 minutes?

I tried again but this time I tried turning off the battery until the time comes to extract the landing gear. When I turned it on again it was dead. How did it die if I turned it off?! It's not like this on Flying Lessons on the Emergency procedures lesson. I noticed that if I leave the propellers unfeathered the alternators will still work and the battery will work also. Is this realistic?

In a Cessna 172 the battery will never die in the air because you cannot feather the propeller and the alternator will work all the time. And why can't a Cessna feather it's propeller? Doesn't it produce much drag when windmiling and no thrust at all?

And is there a way to notify the ATC about my emergency? I know that squawk 7700 can be used in real or the 121.500 Mhz radio frequency but I tried doing it in FS2004 and none of it works.

cessna bats will die if there not being charged .the poh of the aircraft says to shut everything off..if every thing is turnd off until you need them you would get about 20 min to a half hour of bat life..the gryos use most of the continious power3 to 5 min  if the bats were week too begin with and the gyros were left on .. ..the engine will continue to run as they are being fired form another system (as you know) and the handbook does tell you to land as soon as possable.make sure you shut off the gyros and try it again regards 727 driver

Yes, that's what I tried to do but it didn't work. I shuted down the gyros, that is I turned the BATTERY switch to OFF, but when I turned it on later to extend the gear it was dead, like it was on. So I think it's just not realistic, but I can deal with that unreality by leaving the propellers unfeathered in case of an engine failure, the alternator will then work and charge the battery.