Hi Guys

 

I would like to find out if anyone have experience this in a DC3, both real life and FSX.

 

I was climbing with a tail wind of 40 knots to 18000 ft, ground speed at 200 knots, Vspeed at 300. Was feeling really happy with this as you seldom get this kind of ground speed.

 

But the engines suddenly went into idle when approaching 18000ft, and they wont go back to max power at all. So I have to decend...(note:all deicing were on)

 

When I decended to about 12500ft both engine start to come alive and slowly reaching max power. So now I am cruising at 14000ft. Still wind aided and Ground speed at 198knots. Pretty nice!

 

My question is : What have I done wrong? Was the Vspeed of 300 too much? Does this happen only in FSX or this could happen to a Real DC3 in the real world?

 

Note : I did observe a changed in the tail wind  moments after the sudden power lost.

 

 

More than likely your carburetors froze up. Make sure you turn on your carb heat.

More than likely your carburetors froze up. Make sure you turn on your carb heat.

I hv the carb heat on from the start. So dont think that's the problem.  If I forgot to turn on carb heat I usually hv engine lost power near 10000ft.

Could it be that a sudden change in air temperature cause the carb to be not effective?

 

I m now cruising at 16600ft. Engine seems ok....

It wouldnt be very advisable to be flying a DC3 at 18000 ft. Lack of o2 to pilot and engine.. I keep her below 10000ft cruise.

Was the mixture set to Auto-Lean?

 

Billy Bluestar

Was the mixture set to Auto-Lean?

 

Billy Bluestar

I use manual lean, the lean is at 30% when the engine incident happened. And adjusting the mixture wiil not bring back the engines power. Only decend to 12500ft helped to bring them back.

It wouldnt be very advisable to be flying a DC3 at 18000 ft. Lack of o2 to pilot and engine.. I keep her below 10000ft cruise.

I hv bring along oxygen tank for the high altitude cruise. And I have cruise at 22000ft previously when I flew her from Switzerland to Colombia.

Does indeed sound like the old 'very unrealistic engine leaning model' in FSX.

 

From memory, flying the DC-3 in FSX at that sort of altitude, I'd need to have the mixture controls back at about 10% !

 

 

From memory, flying the DC-3 in FSX at that sort of altitude, I'd need to have the mixture controls back at about 10% !

 

I will do the 10% lean next time when I go to 18000ft in FSX. So this does not apply to real DC3 in real flying?

 

 

I use manual lean, the lean is at 30% when the engine incident happened. And adjusting the mixture wiil not bring back the engines power. Only decend to 12500ft helped to bring them back.

 

I flew the C-47/R4-D in the military.  I always used AUTO LEAN in cruise.  Never flew it high enough to use oxygen, just too uncomfortable. 

 

My general philosophy on leaning reciprocal engines is to be LOP.

 

YMMV  :smile:

 

Billy Bluestar 

 

 

LOP.

 

:huh:

:huh:

LOP = Lean of Peak.

 

Billy Bluestar

:smile:  Thanks, Bluestar.

 

 

LOP = Lean of Peak.

 

What does it means?

It means you lean until the engine is producing maximum power (you can usually hear it), then continue leaning until your EGT or CHT is 50-100 degrees less than the temperature which produced the maximum power.

It means you lean until the engine is producing maximum power (you can usually hear it), then continue leaning until your EGT or CHT is 50-100 degrees less than the temperature which produced the maximum power.

ok thanks, will see if i could do that.