Using Active Sky...ugh, FSINN weather, who uses that!

AJ,

 

Ok, I understand, 400 - 500 fpm. I just asked/commmented about this in another post as I was also surprised by such performance, although I have never experienced it climbing to 10,000 but rather after passing 15 -16,000 in similar weight and Wx conditions as you

 

What I have been doing is climbing at a lower airspeed. The charts show that under most weights 145 kts is Vy. So I compromise between that and the prescribed 170 kts for climb IAS : 155 -165 kts. When I see the climb rate begin to suffer (above 15 - 16000) I bring the RPM up to 99 - 100% - by then the air is cooler (altitude) and the increase in RPM brings the EGT down so I increase Tq to maintain 10 degrees below max EGT. Yes, fuel consumption goes up a little for that period.

 

Today I climbed to 21,000 (flying out of the SE coast USA) and never saw below 1000 fpm (around 22,500 lbs). Also, once you level out, it takes less time to reach cruise speed at which point I bring the RPM back to 98% (not before bringing power back a little for the pesky EGT rise that will follow, of course) and enjoyed 298 TAS alll the way. I am sure that RW JS41 drivers are rolling their eyes, but so far I have broken nothing and IAS remains comfortably above red tape

Using Active Sky...ugh, FSINN weather, who uses that!

 

Are you on active sky 2012 beta?

 

Do you leave active sky running between flights?

 

I had a similar issue with the Flight1 Mustang yesterday, I couldn't get past 20,000 feet at any speed.

 

I checked the temps and it was hot up there! I restarted active sky, suddenly my temps dropped and I climbed to 40,000 nice and steady.

 

You can tell if active sky has failed if you go to the moving map and lock to aircraft - if the location is wrong it needs a restart.

No I start Active Sky fresh every flight, but next time I'll restart it to see if it refreshes the temps.

Thanks for the tip!

The active sky servers have been down lately actually, that might have been the cause of my weather disconnect and slow climbs

Maybe, but maybe not.

I'm flying a flight right now, and this time I'm climbing at around 1500 fpm on the initial climb, and around 850-900 passing 16,000.

 

This time, I didn't call "set power" for FS2Crew on the takeoff run.

The manual says you're supposed to stand up the throttles to 12 o'clock and then call set power.

 

This time I manually set the torque for takeoff, and I had zero issues on my climb rate.

The other two times I had climb issues, I had issued a set power command to my FO.

 

I don't know if it's directly related or not, but all seems to be well. The temp at my departure airport (KFAT) is a scorching 41*C and was pretty warm all the way through 10,000.

 

It could be that the servers weren't updating my temps, but I'll never know at this point. Just happy I have my JS41 back to normal!

AJ,

 

This is normal. As Robert (PMDG chief) has said, she just climbs better in colder air. The effect you are running into is all about density altitude. Info available here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Density_altitude.

 

Now, if you think about it, you have heard of airports being referred to as "high and hot". Why this matters is, in a rough sense, the hotter it is at a given altitude the higher the altitude the aircraft acts like it is performing at. If the ISA is 3 degerees at 22,000 the aircraft may perform like it is at 27,000

Branton, what I was experiencing was NOT normal.

With a TAT of 41*C I was climbing at 1,500 fpm, no problems yesterday.

 

When I wrote the original post I could barely get above 500 fpm with a TAT of 20*C. Same airport as before.

Just an update to this:

 

The issue wasn't with FS2Crew at all.

I had set my flaps axis through FSUIPC, which PMDG addons doesn't really take to very well. With flaps at 0 a small degree of flaps is still lowered which accounts for a high AoA.

I also experienced this in the NGX (low thrust on climbout).

 

So the ultimate solution was to set any axis mappings through FSX, NOT FSUIPC.

I still calibrated them through FSUIPC, and it's working fine.

Good to hear the problem was solved and that you can enjoy the bird fully again :).

I had set my flaps axis through FSUIPC, which PMDG addons doesn't really take to very well. With flaps at 0 a small degree of flaps is still lowered which accounts for a high AoA.

 

So, are you using an axis for J41 flaps? I've often wondered how people pull that off with axis that don't have detents.

So, are you using an axis for J41 flaps? I've often wondered how people pull that off with axis that don't have detents.

 

I setup a Saitek throttle lever to universally control flaps through FSX, then calibrated it through FSUIPC.

Works fine on the JS41.

How do you manage the 'detents?' On some aircraft they have settings at flaps 1, flaps 5, etc. Others have flaps 10, 20, etc. Be useful to know in case I *ever* get a bigger airplane.

How do you manage the 'detents?' On some aircraft they have settings at flaps 1, flaps 5, etc. Others have flaps 10, 20, etc. Be useful to know in case I *ever* get a bigger airplane.

 

Not sure what you mean. If I slide my lever down, I hear the click as the flap lever in the sim moves to flaps 9, then another click when they move to flaps 15, then a final click at flaps 25. By that time my lever has moved through the whole range of motion on my throttle quadrant.

 

If I load the NGX, I hear each click as it moves through the flaps all the way to flaps 40.

 

The only plane I don't get full detents on is the PMDG 747. For the last notch of flaps, I have to assign the Saitek lever's reverse zone to emulate pressing F7 to get that last notch.

However, if you setup flaps in FSUIPC for example, it automatically detects the number of flap settings on the 747 (and any other plane) and just shortens the distance you move the lever for each flap tick so it can fit in the last notch of flaps.

 

For some reason the FSX flaps axis mapping has a hard cap at how many detents it will handle. After you reach that limit, you have to start using F7...but like I said, the 747 is the only plane I've seen that busted the cap, and it was only by 1 notch of flaps.