I was wondering what the pitch controls do?? The blue throttle control?? Does it control the angle of attack that the propellers take at the air?? What is the purpose and when/how is it used?? Thanx.

In a nutshell yes. The learning center in flightsim explains it pretty well. Have a look at the controlling the engine topic and the propeller control and managing power section. Phil

Thank you Phil.

Okay, you can learn all this from the sim, but here you go:there are three basic engine controls on the average single engine prop aircraft..The throttle is like the accelerator (obviously)The pitch control alters the propeller blade angles (some aircraft have more complicated arrangements than this BTW)The mixture control alters how rich the fuel is that goes into the engine cylinders.How you use these is: the throttle adjusts the power to the engine, but unlike what might seem the obvious way to use the throttle, you generally use it to control the altitude of the aircraft (not always, but typically in a Cessna or similar). More power = up you go. Less power = down you go. You control the speed of the aircraft with its pitch (i.e. how high the nose is pointing upwards as you fly along) for this you use the trim control (which on an average joystick is buttons 3 and 4. You can swap this around and use the pitch to control the climb and descent rates and add more power to speed up, but the first way I mentioned is what you really ought to be doing.(as surprising as this sounds, it's not dissimilar to discovering that you don't actually use the rudder to turn the aircraft either).Now, as you get higher, the air gets thinner, which means there is too much gas going into the engine for any given throttle setting, so you have to lean the mixture out as you climb in order to get the right mix of gas and air into the engine cylinders or you'll choke the engine with too much fuel and it will not develop full power.Finally you have the prop pitch control, at steep angles the prop blades take a bigger bite out of the air, whereas at shallow angles they can spin faster due to there being less air resistance. Controlling this makes for either economical cruising speeds or more power during critical phases of the flight, such as landing or taking off. In a typical Cessna, this is not really hugely critical to be honest, but in something like a Spitfire for example, if you had the wrong propeller pitch setting on take off, you'd probably career across the field and bury yourself in the hedges on the opposite side of the airstrip!I recommend you do some of the lessons in FS in order to get all this clear - don't worry, they are quite enjoyable, and you'll have a sense of achievment when you do them right.

>How you use these is: the throttle adjusts the power to the>engine, but unlike what might seem the obvious way to use the>throttle, you generally use it to control the altitude of the>aircraft (not always, but typically in a Cessna or similar).>More power = up you go. Less power = down you go. You control>the speed of the aircraft with its pitch (i.e. how high the>nose is pointing upwards as you fly along) for this you use>the trim control (which on an average joystick is buttons 3>and 4. You can swap this around and use the pitch to control>the climb and descent rates and add more power to speed up,>but the first way I mentioned is what you really ought to be>doing.I always enjoy these pitch for speed and power for altitude arguments, as I'm always on the side, where we can figure that the reverse is equally important, and we come up with many reasons as to why. :DBut as you said, the opposite (throttle for speed) is sometimes true, and for beginners, where being on the slow side of the power curve happens more than not, then throttle for altitude is the best to keep in mind.But then you heard about the student pilot nervously yanking the elevator up and down on the runway, wondering why the plane had no getty up & go, didn't you? Pitch for speed just wasn't working that day... :(

hmmm... i use the throttle thingy to control the noise level in the cabin and the elevator to control the passenger's newly rediscovered religiosity (or cabin temperature, but this assumes the vents are stuck):-)

>But then you heard about the student pilot nervously yanking>the elevator up and down on the runway, wondering why the>plane had no getty up & go, didn't you? Pitch for speed just>wasn't working that day... :( ...and then the CFI leaned over and yelled in the student's ear, "Ya gotta flap faster that THAT boy!" :-lol :-lol