FSX Saratoga won't climb

[Vanman011 0]

Even with both patches installed the airplane will not climb passed 8500 ft and will only maintain that altitude at a speed of 116 knots. Anyone have an idea what may be wrong?

[cnault2 3]

Unless someone has created a fix for this, you're probably experiencing the old Carb Heat problem that has affected FSX for years. Your symptoms sure sound like it. Press the "H" key as part of your climbout checklist - preferably as soon as possible after take off. The colder the weather, the sooner you need to engage the heater.

 

This affects all aircraft except t-props and jets. Yes- even those fuel injected aircraft like yours (?) without carbs... Hence the statement that this is a problem..

[raymie 81]

One other possibility--check to make sure you have "auto mixture" enabled in the Aircraft Realism menu. If it is not enabled, then you must manually lean the mixture as you climb.This could affect your aircraft performance if mixture is too rich at the altitude you mentioned.

 

Hope you get this worked out.

[Vanman011 0]

One other possibility--check to make sure you have "auto mixture" enabled in the Aircraft Realism menu. If it is not enabled, then you must manually lean the mixture as you climb.This could affect your aircraft performance if mixture is too rich at the altitude you mentioned.

 

Hope you get this worked out.

I was leaning..... but not carefully at all. A careful leaning showed me that passed a certain point the fuel flow started INCREASING as I leaned. Obviously I have not installed patch 2 (the mixture patch) properly somehow. When I have some time I will investigate further... thanks for all the replies!

[raymie 81]

It has been awhile since I disabled "auto-mixture".

 

If I remember correctly, as you manually lean the mixture, watch the needle on the "EGT" gauge. As you lean the mixture, the EGT needle will continue to move upward on the gauge--the needle will then "peak out" and then start to come back down if you continue to lean out the mixture. I believe optimum engine performance is at "peak". Obviously you will have to continue to adjust the mixture control as you continue to gain altitude.

 

The possible reason why you observed the fuel flow increasing, is you were beyond "peak" EGT needle movement. The "old school" way of doing this was listening to the sound of the engine as mixture was being leaned. I don't know how accurate FSX is in leaning the old school way.

 

Hope this helps