Climb Rate Too High

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jacenbourne
Airman
Posts: 46
Joined: 19 Dec 2014, 20:25

Climb Rate Too High

Post by jacenbourne »

Hi there

Now most 172 pilots probably laugh when they hear of anyone reporting a problem with it's climb rate being too high. As a former Cessna 150 owner, I share the pain. Though I'm flying Grummans now, which have fantastic cruise performance... but climb worse than the 150. :D

Anywho, I wanted to talk about the climb rate of the A2A C172R... I regularly fly a Cessna 172S at sea level (I live in Houston). Solo, full tanks, I see 7-800fpm at a Vy climb. A buddy of mine and I took the same plane to an airport at 1800ft ground level, on a hot day, with full tanks, and climbing out of there we were lucky to see 500fpm. Probably hung out close to 400fpm.

I put 2 people in the A2A C172 at 3/4 tanks and I was climbing out closer to 1400ft at sea level... On a hot day, full tanks, 2 people, seeing 1000-1200fpm at Vy. I feel like the A2A C172 has a good deal more power than the real plane, especially when it comes to its climbing tendencies. Since A2A prides themselves on their accuracy (and I truly appreciate that as a pilot and Sim enthusiast), just wanted to bring this up and see if it's just an issue with my install :) .

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Oracle427
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Joined: 02 Sep 2013, 19:30
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Re: Climb Rate Too High

Post by Oracle427 »

Can you provide more detail on the actual environmental conditions and weight and also confirm that you have applied the latest patch? Also make confirm that you are using the A2A load menu (shift-4) and not the one for FSX. I am guessing your tests are taking place at your RL home airfield in the sim? I also tend to fly mostly from my RL home airfield in my sim.

Lastly, make sure to always start the sim using a default aircraft and then switch to the A2A 172 while the sim is running. This applies to any add-on aircraft with custom coding as the FSX engine does not initialize everything properly and can introduced a mix of subtle and some not so subtle behaviors.

I fly a 172SP regularly IRL and can't recall a single time I have obtained less than 700FPM in a climb at Vy zero flaps at sea level.

The most recent RL flight I made in hot humid weather, I was sustaining 800FPM in smooth air at Vy. I was at 2300Lbs, on a 27C day at seal level with pressure at 3018. I would expect to make 700FPM at max gross in this plane unless density altitude went north of 2000 feet. I have had days where I could make 1000-1200FPM in cooler weather of around 20C OAT at the surface close to 2992 and dry conditions at around the same weight.

I am curious how hot your OAT was and what the baro is in your flights and if you recall the density altitude. 400FPM would be very poor in my book at sea level unless density altitude was somewhere close to 3000' and above. In that case, the engine may benefit from leaning out for better performance. I know it can get very hot and humid down your way, so it wouldn't surprise me if the density altitude is very high.

The other question is if the engine is the IO-360-L2A 180HP or has it been changed for something else? I am under the impression that only the 180HP IO-360-L2A is available on the 172S.
Flight Simmer since 1983. PP ASEL IR Tailwheel
N28021 1979 Super Viking 17-30A

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