I just returned to FS after a 20 year break! I had a few flights to start that went ok but now...every flight results in an unexplained power/RPM drop after 5 minutes or less of flying. I take off planning to to do touch and goes but before I complete 1/2 a circuit of the pattern the RPMs drop to idle and after another minutes or two the engine quits completely. No warning, no reason or any action on my part. I suspect that some setting has gotten changed that I am not aware of but I have no idea were to look. Can anyone give me a clue as to what has happened?

Mixture is a common one for this. 

I was used to auto-mixture in FSX so this caught me out in MSFS. 

If you take off from a high altitude airport the effect will be even worse.

Try pulling the mixture out to 50% and see how you go. 

If not, we can look at other things. 👍

Edited November 10, 20205 yr by bobcat999

1 hour ago, david1315 said:

I just returned to FS after a 20 year break! I had a few flights to start that went ok but now...every flight results in an unexplained power/RPM drop after 5 minutes or less of flying. I take off planning to to do touch and goes but before I complete 1/2 a circuit of the pattern the RPMs drop to idle and after another minutes or two the engine quits completely. No warning, no reason or any action on my part. I suspect that some setting has gotten changed that I am not aware of but I have no idea were to look. Can anyone give me a clue as to what has happened?

Sounds like you may have a conflict with another controller which is randomly impacting your mixture and/or power settings.  What is the position of your throttle and mixture levers in the sim cockpit when this happens?

Not necessarily a controller problem. As the engine warms up you need to pull the mixture or you'll get too much fuel and not enough air dumping into the cylinders, which will make the engine stall. I'm not sure if that's properly simulated in MSFS yet - been spending too much time with turbines to have noticed.

 

 

 

55 minutes ago, eslader said:

Not necessarily a controller problem. As the engine warms up you need to pull the mixture or you'll get too much fuel and not enough air dumping into the cylinders, which will make the engine stall. 

 

Thanks.  I understand the fuel/air mixture relationship. 

This sounds like a  conflict issue to me which is somehow affecting the mixture.  Significant loss of RPM to the extent described will not just happen in a traffic pattern (at ordinary pattern altitude).  If he is taking off from a high altitude airport with full mixture, then his initial problem would be reduced power at take-off which he hasn't stated.      If the OP has leaned the mixture for take-off from a high altitude airport, then he already understands the fuel/air mixture relationship at altitude.  More information required.

16 minutes ago, ErichB said:

Thanks.  I understand the fuel/air mixture relationship. 

This sounds like a  conflict issue to me which is somehow affecting the mixture.  Significant loss of RPM to the extent described will not just happen in a traffic pattern (at ordinary pattern altitude).  If he is taking off from a high altitude airport with full mixture, then his initial problem would be reduced power at take-off which he hasn't stated.      If the OP has leaned the mixture for take-off from a high altitude airport, then he already understands the fuel/air mixture relationship at altitude.  More information required.

I had similar problem with throttle very early in the sim. I had to reset and redo all bindings and after that everything worked

Assuming there are no multiplayer planes nearby causing control crosstalk and you have NOT accidently programmed a timed failure to the aircraft,  it really has to be bindings. 

 

Try trimming for straight and level and then not touching any controls or the keyboard/mouse at all and see if it still happens.

Edited November 10, 20205 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick