737 Fuel Flow Valve Bug - revisited

I also posted this at flightsim.com since it applies to those who aren't building cockpits as well as to anyone else who is. My understanding of "nirvana" for a flight simmer, is the ability to start, fly and land a plane without ever touching the mouse or the keyboard!

Several weeks back, I was searching for info on something else and came across a long, old thread about the "bug" in the stock 737 with the "START VALVE OPEN." This morning, I made an interesting discovery.

Many people are aware that this particular plane has some non-functioning levers/switches/buttons, etc and some features that work or work properly only in the virtual cockpit. My pursuit - like most if not all cockpit builders - is to be able to control everything without touching a mouse or a keyboard. So, on my keyboard encoder, I attempted sort of an "end run" around the problem. And promptly ran into the "...rule of unintended consequences."

In the procedure for manually starting the engines, one of the steps is to "start" the engine and when N2 reaches 20, open the "fuel flow" valve in the throttle quadrant. Presto, the engine fires up. But, typically, a "malfunction" shows up in the engine panel that says "START VALVE OPEN." My "end run" was to open the fuel flow *and* issue a CTRL + E command (auto-engine startup) that, sure enough, gets rid of the valve open annunciation. But, it also automatically turns on alternators 1 and 2, thereby "reversing" my switches on my keyboard encoder - my switches are off, but the alternators are on! Drat!

The "standard" work-around has been to open the VC overhead and toggle the knobs there. That removes the message on the fuel flow valves, but I absolutely, positively, sincerely despise touching that damned mouse (or keyboard!).

This morning, when I discovered the attendant problem, I opened up the sim, fired up FSUIPC and turned on the logging facility. Regardless of whether I used my assigned keys for the starter "control" or the knobs in the VC overhead, the control code for FS showed up exactly the same - I think it was 66300 and 66301. Out of idle curiosity, I flipped the switch on my keyboard encoder and THE DAMNED WARNING DISAPPEARED! I suspect I "discovered" something that many already knew - the thread, after all, goes back to the first days after the 737-800 showed up.

But I thought that I would at least pass on the info as I "discovered" it. Simply toggling the starter again removes the offending message and I'm tickled.

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL