hi Guysthis may be a silly question but I was crusing at fl270 and was passed at a lower level but a AI boeing of some sort and he had a contrail. and i didnt at the time i was flying the b200 super king air..No my resoning was that because the B200 flys slower it does not produce a contrail just wondering if this were correct... :)

Contrails in FS2004, like in real life can vary from aircraft to aircaft, flight level to flight level. It's a major step forward from the `one height, one setting` of previous versions.Also, jets and turboprops can produce contrails at different levels due to the nature of the exhaust - in a jet its the primary source of thrust and is very hot, but in turboprops it's a secondary source, and is a lot cooler.Allcott

Do turboprops produce contrails?, I have never seen it in RL or in FS?CheersDan.

Hi,I believe that turboprop are usually flying below the altitude where contrails start to be seen, so it is quite less common to see contrails from a turboprop than from a jetliner (which are usually flying at higher altitudes). Cheers,Francois

Its an interesting question, according to various website's turboprops do produce contrails.I have never seen them in FS, even when I have been at a height that are forming contrails on jets.So do FS turboprops produce contrails when they should?CheersDan.

I'm not sure about this, but I think I have seen my King Air 350 produce contrails at around FL300, but i'm not sure.Glad FS9 supports those dynamic conditions for contrail formation though...

produce vapor/con trails. Jet, recip, pulse jet, ram jet, turboprop, etc. Two things are required, water and the correct atmospheric conditions.Regards,Layabout.... in sunny Florida

I few times I have asked this question myself and half heartedly tried to see if they are there in FS9 and so far no luck. Each time I have tried there have been no contrails from my turboprop. I will say that I have not messed around with my weather settings so it is possible that I was either not high enough or the weather conditions were not right. Maybe I will get serious about it tonight because I have often wondered if FS9 will model this.best Regards,Philip Olsonhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

The effect has to be enabled in the aircraft.cfg - easiest way to do so, download markus brunner's ai contrail utility!There's a neat trick you can do there as well - it allows you to configure aircraft (user or AI) to produce contrails at a given temperature. Water content (required for contrail formation) of the exhaust can be approximated by fuel flow. The neat thing about markus' utility is that it allows you to select which type of aircraft you want to produce contrails, then parses the aircraft.cfgs - what I did, was first load everything except jets and turboprops and set a contrail temp of -40 oC now all my planes have contrails at -40. Then, I selected turboprops, and set them to have a contrail temp of -20 oC. Finally, I selected Jets, and set their contrail temp to -15 oC. Now all my planes produce contrails at different temps. It's too bad that instead of temp the contrails weren't calculated based on relative humidity or dew point or vapour pressure... Also, it would be great to have length of contrail be a function of how far from the set point the actual air is...anyhow.EDIT> ALSO...markus utility either comes with or recommends an additional contrail effect with a much greater length and allows you to choose the effect you want appended to the aircraft.cfg - I used that long one for jets. I used fx_contrail_l.fx for the turbo props which is shorter and not so wide as the addon effect. Last, I used fx_contrail_s.fx for props...small - nice effect. Now all I need to do is find some -40 oC air that I can reach with a cessna. Last winter I almost had that on the tarmac here in new england...but not now.Final thing - you can edit the effect files to make the contrail longer or shorter as you please - the readme for either the long contrail effect or markus' utility describes how.Best,sg

Hey guys. I fly King Air in the real world and have followed behind aircraft at 20,000 feet and was sitting right in their contrails. So to answer that questions, contrails can be produced at lower altitudes depending on atmospheric conditions.

Ok so they can be produced by turboprops but they are rare in nature thanks for that info..and thanks for the info in adding contrals to AI and other aircraft very interesting i knew it could be done but had no idea how...Anyway a Big thanks to all of you for helping me out...

Thanks Scott, I will get Mr. Brunner's utility and set this up! I kind of remember seeing this some time ago but did not have the time to use it at the time. I guess I know what I will be doing tonight!Thanks,Philip Olsonhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

"Also, jets and turboprops can produce contrails at different levels due to the nature of the exhaust - in a jet its the primary source of thrust and is very hot"Hi AllcottI'm not sure that this is correct. My understanding is that airliners use fan jet engines and derive most of their thrust from the fan and not the turbine engine thrust. But I'm no expert on this stuff.David

The difference is water content. Jets burn more fuel so their exhaust contains more water. As was stated, the exhaust is also hotter. What that translates to is that the when the exhaust equilibrates with surrounding air in terms of temperature and pressure, jet exhaust will condense in a different set of conditions than turboprop exhaust.