Hi guys, as everyone knows, the long awaited RealAir Beech Turbine Duke has been released today. I just made my maiden flight from Friday Habour to Tofino. The whole flight I wondered about what to do with the Condition Lever. I know that I have to use the lever for starting the engines, but then what. What is the right setting for climb, cruise, descend and landing? I read through the excelent manual, but I´m not knowing the operations correctly. Can someone enlighten me?

Hi - I am familiar with the propellor condition lever on the Hercules C130 and I believe the Beech Turbine Duke function is identical. I found this article on Google, I hope it helps.Propellor Condition LeverKind Rgds - Roger

During my observations of turbo-prop operations the condition lever is left in low idle for all ground operations. Just before take-off you would move the condition levers to high idle and leave it there for the duration of flight until you land at your destination and have turned off the runway. :(

I've actually been using idle thrust and condition levers at high idle for taxiing. It's about the correct speed maybe with a few taps of the brakes. En route using high idle for flight.Not sure if I'm doing the ground portion correct or not lol!

Whether to use high or low idle in-flight is a controversial issue, but the general consensus is that either is fine in the air because in most cases the condition lever only affects ground operations. In practice this means high idle just injects a little more fuel so is good for taxiing without constantly having to use the throttle. But start-up should use low idle from cut off, not high idle.Once airborne the condition levers have a negligable affect because they only raise idle turbine speed and do not affect turbine rpm once in the air. I think the flying guide mentions this.Regards,Rob - RealAir

Rob,Thanks for a Beautiful fantastic product,You Sean and the Beta team did an incredible job!Cheers!!!!

Just a few minutes flying this thing so not much flying with it. I have experience on the -28,-34,-41,-42, -65, -67, ans -112 pratt engines. The one thing i found that the duke doesnt simulate quite realistically is the spool times. Eg, go from low idle to high idle should only take 1 - 2 secs on the above engines. Also as i applied take off power i noticed that the props didnt reach full rpm until the N1 was at about 93 or so percent. If i remenber correctly it does take that much N1 to get them to red line. But then again i dont have experience with the duke engines (-35's i believe?) but i cant imagine them being that much different than the -34s.

Just a few minutes flying this thing so not much flying with it. I have experience on the -28,-34,-41,-42, -65, -67, ans -112 pratt engines. The one thing i found that the duke doesnt simulate quite realistically is the spool times. Eg, go from low idle to high idle should only take 1 - 2 secs on the above engines. Also as i applied take off power i noticed that the props didnt reach full rpm until the N1 was at about 93 or so percent. If i remenber correctly it does take that much N1 to get them to red line. But then again i dont have experience with the duke engines (-35's i believe?) but i cant imagine them being that much different than the -34s.

Hi Jack,FSX can simulate quick spool times but this can lead to turboprop rpm getting way out of control and exceeding governed rpm limits, thus the only solution is to reduce the spool up. This only affects turboprop modelling not pistons. For similar reasons we need to control prop speed build up otherwise again the rpm can get out of hand. Believe me I've spent an awful lot of time trying to defeat the core simulation in this regard.However, once in the air I hope you find things more to your liking.Kind Regards,Rob - RealAir

Hey Rob. I hear ya onthe fsx limitations! I will probambly do a flight with it shortly but I like what I see so far. Great addon! Take care.

How does the torque gauge react to power lever movement? without lag?How about ground fine on touchdown?

How does the torque gauge react to power lever movement? without lag?How about ground fine on touchdown?

Hey Jim. You got to be a bit more specific on what you are asking. In turbines, yes there is lag as you increase power BUT depending on how FAST you increase power. Do it fast and there is lag. Do it slow an you might not notice any lag. Also depends on which model of Pratt. The laggiest Pratt I have flow was the -112 on the Cessna Conquest. Man was there ever lag on that engine.

Hi Jack, I have worked on and flown the dash 27,34,36,65 and 67 PT6's.In governing range,there is no noticeable lag.

Ahh yes gotcha. Yeah the lag is neglible. The only time I notice an lag is when you jump on the power levers NOW. We did in in training a lot in the case of engine failures. When you go from say 800 lbs of tq to max tq, and having to advance the power levers very quickly, then a lag is noticable. But for every day power applications yeah, you are right, nothing noticable.

Hi Rob. I couldnt find a support forum on the realair website so I will just ask this here. As you climb and the pressure differential reaches its max, the CABIN ALT warning light comes on even though my cabin altitude is still at 6000 feet. Now keep in mind I do not have any time in the duke but as for the beech king airs, 1900s is where I have a bunch if time. In these line of beech aircraft you do not get any indication of the cabin reaching the max differential. The pressure system has a built in relief that will not let you exceed the max diff. The only time you got a CABIN ALT master caution light was when the actual cabin altitude exceeded 10000 (for the Be10 anyway). Is this system simulated properly in the duke? Does the duke actually let you know you reached max diff on the cabin?Also it SEEMS the fuel vent heat is weird. On the king air the fuel vent heat did not affect the torque whatsoever. The ice inlet vanes did though. Maybe i gotta read up on the duke but usually beech is pretty standard. Can you confirm the fuel vent heat actually alters the engine torque?

Yeah I'm pretty sure the smaller needle is the differential. The scale is PSI... Not sure on this plane what the limit is... though from the scale it look to be around 4.7 psi. You may have to increase your rate with the smaller knob to the left.