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CraigC

A Prop/Mixture Question

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Guest PilatusTurbo

I have been flying props in FS for about three years. I never really understood how to set the mixture at different altitudes. As you can imagine, I always kept Automixture enabled.Could someone explain to me how the mixture works. Things like how to mix fuel/oxygen at various altitudes. I feel like I should know, but I don't. :-bigangelThanks

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Well, there are a few different ways to set mixture properly in an aircraft like a 172. First of all, the mixture in FS isnt really modeled that great. If I were you I would leave it set to automixture because you cant (or at least I could never get it) lean it out with precision because it gets to a point where your engine is running, and then its not...no roughness in between like it should act.Two major ways that mixture is set.....Pull the mixture back (lean) until you get a little roughness...push it in (enrichen) just enough to get rid of the roughness. Pretty simple. That is probably the most common way most private pilots that dont fly much lean their mixture for best fuel flow.Another way is to lean the mixture until your EGT peaks at its highest value. Enrichen the mixture until you are 50 degrees cooler than the peak value (might be hard to read the numbers on the EGT real well). The EGT is modeled on the MSFS 172, but it doesnt work all that well from my experiences. Just dont forget to enrichen your mixture as you descend, especially if you are going to higher altitudes. I have never tried it in MSFS, but in real life....if you have it leaned out a lot for a much higher altitude and then descend to traffic pattern altitude without enrichening it, theres a good chance it will be too lean for that lower altitude and the engine will quit on you.I could go into a lot more detail about leaning for best power or best range, but that is probably not going to do you much good for the purposes of MSFS and I might confuse you in the process if I havent already. Hope this helped.CraigEDIT: One more thing to add...if you are going up higher in a prop-job...you would be best served to just lean the mixture a generic value as you climb up each couple of thousand feet until you get to cruise and then lean it out more precisely.

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FS9 I think does a pretty good job of modeling the mixture parameters. When I am climbing in altitude I have to lean the mixture to get better performance out of the aircraft. Just like I would do in a real airplane. When it is hot outside or cold, that also has an effect on engine performance and your mixture settings. Basically, you adjust your mixture for your cruising altitude to get better performance out of the aircraft. Just remember to push the mixture back in when you decend, or you may loose your engine. I would do some research on the web about how to fly an airplane in regards to aircraft performance, etc. It is really pretty interesting stuff.

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Guest PilatusTurbo

Thanks for the replies gentlemen. I did a search on the net to find any info on Mixture control with no luck.Perhaps someone can shed some light on Mixture and FS2004.Thanks

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Guest PilatusTurbo

Allcott, Thank you. This is just what I was looking for. Thanks again.

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That is a great site...I wanted to go into more depth, but I didnt want to write something as lengthy as what that page has for mixture. And as I had originally stated (I dont know what was going through my mind at the time), its not a mixture setting for best economy or least amount of time. That is a power setting. Sorry for the confusion.Craig

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