Hello, After reaching approximately 32,000 ft in a CLS DC-10-30, I notice the airspeed drops and the plane eventually stalls (full thrust). I've never been able to surpass 34,000 ft due to stalling.Any suggestions to what I'm doing wrong?

Could be too heavy, too high... or too slow. What is your mach at that altitude?DJ

You probably need to do a step climb owing to the weight if it's got a lot of fuel on board, most large airliners have to do that. For example, a 747 crossing the Atlantic might aim to eventually get up to 38,000 on its flight or possibly even higher, but it would probably aim for maybe 32,000 initially, burn some fuel off, then maybe go up to 34,000, burn some more fuel, then go for 36,000, etc. The fuel a 747 can carry weighs more than the actual aircraft does, so climbing up to too high an altitude does nothing much more than simply waste fuel in tying to haul the weight of the fuel up there and is therefore self defeating in terms of economy.The DC-10 was an attempt to be more economical than the 747 by reducing the number of engines and as a result the amount of weight and fuel, but of course it also reduces the amount of available thrust too, so it all kind of balances out and isn't that much more economical than a 747 when one considers the larger capacity a 747 has and the revenue that brings in, so DC-10 have to do the same kind of step climbs as a 747 would.Interestingly, Boeing did at one point consider making a three-engined version of the 747 as a response to the DC-10 and the L-1011 Tristar, with either two engines on one wing and one on the other, or possibly one engine on each wing and a tail-mounted third like the DC-10 has. They got as far as engineering drawings but then dropped the idea in favour of developing the B777 after Airbus proved two engines was feasible for a wide-bodied airliner with the A300. Prior to deciding to develop the B777, Boeing did try and persuade Airbus to join up with them and make an airliner in collaboration, but Airbus didn't trust Boeing's motives and declined the offer.Al

No matter what speed I plug into the autopilot, I still keep on stalling; I turned off the autothrottle and increased the throttles till they were at their max and my airspeed still kept on sinking tillHowever, I am positive it is due to weight (I took off with the tanks full). I'll try using the step climb method (I don't usually fly heavies)

The DC-10-30 has a range of about 6,000 miles on full tanks, and it has a maximum take off weight of 572 thousand pounds. Ordinarily a fuel calculation would be made based on the load it is carrying and trip the aircraft was going to make, taking into account expected weather, winds etc, then adding 45 extra minutes fuel for a diversion should that be needed (45 mins of fuel for a DC-10 will be roughly about eight percent of the total tank capacity). But you don't have to take it that seriously and instead you can just make a rough guess based on the fact that it should easily make it 5,000 miles on full tanks at light loading and still have a bit of fuel to spare, then work out a reduction based on that since 5,000 miles is a nice round figure to work from.Carrying fuel you don't need is going to make life difficult; you'll have to take off faster, you'll climb slower and you'll have to land faster and more carefully too because of the extra weight on the wheels which could overstress the aeroplane and burst the tires. Of course you shouldn't take just the bare minimum of fuel since the DC-10 isn't the world's best glider, but if you are just flying 1,500 miles, then full tanks is completely unnecessary and is almost certainly what is causing you grief.Al

Hmm, this might seem like a silly question but is your pitot heat on?

I appreciate all the help and explanations given (much more then I expected :()And yes, my pitot heat was on.

Can you post just the [general] section of the aircraft.cfg file here, so that we can see what it says?Thanks.;)