Hi. Just got my 337. A real joy to fly, Carenado is king of GA aircraft. I read the manual that service ceiling is 17000+ feet. I find it very hard just to get above 10000 feet 150-200 kilos below MTOW. I tried also in cold conditions but 17000 feet seems impossible. My first thought is that it don't have turbo and therefore it will be difficult. I don't want to alter the CFG because i think the AC is pretty close to real when speaking of power-to-weight calculations.

I don't see this problem. I just done a flight from East Fortune to Durham. Initial climb is 1500ft/min up to around 6000ft, then 1000ft/min up to around 12'000 then 750ft/min up to around 15'000 then 500ft/min up 17'000. Climbing around 110kts to start then about 100kts at 10'000ft and 90kts above 15'000ft. Manifold pressure is around 15inches at 17'000ft, fuel flow 5lb, the aircraft will certainly go higher but then the engine parameters drop out the green. Full power all the time, RPM on the green 2500, it needs some leaning but not much. Once at cruise, speed is 120kts indicated.

Ok, how heavy is your plane? You go on full throttle at 17000' in cruise? Is there a difference when OAT is warm? say 20-25c. Thanks for the reply

For that flight, my weight was 3657lb's, of course full throttle at cruise, the air is thin, you need as much power as possible, with that weight a cruise of 19'000ft is possible. I have not tried MTOW yet, sometime. I'm using active sky evo, flying over Scotland, the air temp at height was cold, it was +13 deg c on the ground and maybe -10 or -15 at height, I think the temp gauge in the cockpit showed nearly 0 deg F. Wind was 50kts on the nose during climb.

19000' Wow.. ok, I have to try and see how it climbs. The weight I usually have is around 1800-2000 kilos. MTOW is 2100 k.

Don't forget to lean the engine. No way to get to the service or absolute ceiling without leaning properly.Furthermore you have too lean much more aggressive in FSX than IRL.Pull the mixture lever back and check the fuel flow increasing. Once it starts decreasing just enrich the mixture again to achieve the peak fuel flow and hence the highest engine performance

That is what I am doing. I use the FF to set mixture right and I watch it all the time. It still slowly and difficult with a heavy plane though. Thanks for the help

No sweat, according to the POH the ceiling is 18000ft for the H model at mtow so if you make it to FL190 this will happen at a less than 100fpm climb rate.Furthermore the cruise performance tables aren't going any higher than 15000ft :(

Holy icecrack. The mixture is very close to cutoff at 18500'. I did get up there but it took some time though. 282 k below MTOW. MP is one line below green at 14.

I use my Skymaster with Air Hauler so I routienly fly at mtow. Weather is cool here in the Pacific Northwest, USA and I rarely go above 15,000 ft until I've burned off some fuel. Typically I'll set my initial cruise at between 11-13k then climb up to 15k+ once my fuel is 50% or less. Most the time the distance I'm flying doesn't make going any higher worth the effort unless the winds aloft are favorable.