Cruise Speeds and Mixture Settings
Posted: 27 Oct 2018, 16:33
I have been using this plane for a couple of years now and I first want to mention that it is absolutely excellent; however, I do have a couple of questions/comments about it.
Background information:
I recently built a new PC and due to using my original boxed FSX product key too many times I purchased the FSX Steam Edition. The Cherokee installed fine and worked perfectly except that the panel GPS would not move so I did some research and noticed there was an updater for the A2A aircraft, so I installed that to see if it would fix the issue. It did not but I eventually traced the problem to FSCopilot (used for FSInn to connect to VATSIM). I decided to use a different client for connecting to VATSIM and updated my DLL to no longer load FSCopilot and everything is fine with the GPS now. I am just mentioning this in case there are some differences between the original FSX and FSX:SE that may be contributing to what I am observing.
Anyway...to my questions/comments (NOTE: I have not flown a Cherokee 180 outside of the simulator but I do fly a Piper Archer II on a regular basis):
After installing the A2A update, I noticed some cool features as well as some differences with the power and mixture behavior that I will describe below.
1. On the ground, the throttle needs to be advanced significantly further than it did before the update in order to achieve 1000 RPM and it idles very low and emits black smoke with the throttle all the way out. Is this normal behavior for a Cherokee 180?
2. In the air, the power seems to have increased significantly after the update. At max gross weight (2400lbs) and 90F it will climb at 700-800fpm which is more than it used to before the update. It continues to do 600FPM in cruise climb at 5000ft (75F OAT).
3. Cruise speed and fuel flow are higher than before the update with similar power settings. I am currently doing a test flight at 6,000ft, 75F OAT, 2500RPM, 100 degrees ROP (~65% power according to Archer II POH), and I am getting 138MPH(118 KTS) true airspeed and 10.8 GPH fuel flow. According to the manual I should be getting about 110KTS true, 9GPH at this power setting without wheel fairings. I have always used my Archer II POH power settings quite reliably but now my cruise speeds and fuel flows are higher than they used to be. Is this normal?
Like I mentioned above, I have not flown an actual Cherokee 180 but I do fly an Archer II regularly and the A2A Cherokee used to match my Archer book figures closer than they do now. Maybe this is completely normal due to a different prop or something but it just seemed odd to me considering that it used to match more closely than it does now.
Also, this is just me being nit picky (and comparing figures based on a POH for a different plane) and I have absolutely no complaints. I just wanted to get some feedback regarding my recent observations compared to the behavior before the update.
Thanks!
Background information:
I recently built a new PC and due to using my original boxed FSX product key too many times I purchased the FSX Steam Edition. The Cherokee installed fine and worked perfectly except that the panel GPS would not move so I did some research and noticed there was an updater for the A2A aircraft, so I installed that to see if it would fix the issue. It did not but I eventually traced the problem to FSCopilot (used for FSInn to connect to VATSIM). I decided to use a different client for connecting to VATSIM and updated my DLL to no longer load FSCopilot and everything is fine with the GPS now. I am just mentioning this in case there are some differences between the original FSX and FSX:SE that may be contributing to what I am observing.
Anyway...to my questions/comments (NOTE: I have not flown a Cherokee 180 outside of the simulator but I do fly a Piper Archer II on a regular basis):
After installing the A2A update, I noticed some cool features as well as some differences with the power and mixture behavior that I will describe below.
1. On the ground, the throttle needs to be advanced significantly further than it did before the update in order to achieve 1000 RPM and it idles very low and emits black smoke with the throttle all the way out. Is this normal behavior for a Cherokee 180?
2. In the air, the power seems to have increased significantly after the update. At max gross weight (2400lbs) and 90F it will climb at 700-800fpm which is more than it used to before the update. It continues to do 600FPM in cruise climb at 5000ft (75F OAT).
3. Cruise speed and fuel flow are higher than before the update with similar power settings. I am currently doing a test flight at 6,000ft, 75F OAT, 2500RPM, 100 degrees ROP (~65% power according to Archer II POH), and I am getting 138MPH(118 KTS) true airspeed and 10.8 GPH fuel flow. According to the manual I should be getting about 110KTS true, 9GPH at this power setting without wheel fairings. I have always used my Archer II POH power settings quite reliably but now my cruise speeds and fuel flows are higher than they used to be. Is this normal?
Like I mentioned above, I have not flown an actual Cherokee 180 but I do fly an Archer II regularly and the A2A Cherokee used to match my Archer book figures closer than they do now. Maybe this is completely normal due to a different prop or something but it just seemed odd to me considering that it used to match more closely than it does now.
Also, this is just me being nit picky (and comparing figures based on a POH for a different plane) and I have absolutely no complaints. I just wanted to get some feedback regarding my recent observations compared to the behavior before the update.
Thanks!