I have the feeling that 2026 is going to be an expensive year for sim addons!...

I flew Rockwell back in days when I was working on my instrument rating. So I logged some time shooting approaches. Looking forward to try it again in digital world !

5 hours ago, xender said:

Does it have the same issue with the mixture like all the other piston blacksquare models so far?

Nick just told me that this is fixed from now on! (Including the 114), and he's open to porting it back to the older products too!

This is VERY exciting news!!

I’ve missed the Aerocommander and Turbocommander from XP11 and P3D very much.

And this morning my wife and I drove over to the EAA in Oshkosh and a Turbo Commander 695 (N695TR) taxied past, engines just screaming, my wife’s fingers in her ears looking confused why I was so excited about a plane that to her was needlessly shrieking vs all the rest. Got photos and video and hope the SOUNDS are great so I can re-create the experience for her. 😂

Thank goodness I already own the Comanche after dragging her thru “Comanche Town” and photographing each of the many planes there.

The new 114 looks very comfortable and even virtually that’s nice!

1 hour ago, Republic DC9 said:

The new 114 looks very comfortable and even virtually that’s nice!

8 inches wider than a Bonanza!

What is the mixture issue anyway?

9 hours ago, micstatic said:

What is the mixture issue anyway?

I believe the primary issues was that leaning the mixture could result in increasing fuel flow.

12 hours ago, micstatic said:

What is the mixture issue anyway?

There is a bug in the MSFS piston model that goes way back to the FSX days and beyond. Basically, IRL for almost all conditions fuel flow should consistently decrease as leaning is increased, and vice versa. In MSFS, fuel flow will actually decrease if you enrichen too much. You'll actually see a FF dip as you get around the optimal horsepower setting. This is, of course, wrong.

That said - as I've noted before Black Square is the only developer I'm aware of who gets leaning (mostly) correct for Turbo-charged piston engines. For their Turbo-charged engines mixture will behave properly up to whatever the TCharged plane's critical altitude is. Beyond that, "the bug" rears its ugly head as well. About the only TC'ed BS plane that I might fly above critical altitude is the Piston Duke. For all others critical altitude is higher than I'd typically fly these planes IRL, so for all practical purposes the mixture behaves properly in BS's TC'ed planes. At least for me and the flying I do in them, and for that I'm eternally grateful. As a former owner/pilot of a turbo-charged plane, it drove me nutz to have to lean below critical altitude in the sim to maintain power. To the point where now I simply won't fly any TCed planes other than Black Square's.

15 hours ago, xender said:

Nick just told me that this is fixed from now on! (Including the 114), and he's open to porting it back to the older products too!

Sometime back I saw a note buried in an MSFS update which mentioned something about leaning changes in the sim's piston model. At the time, I asked for clarification and wondered if this would automatically apply to existing aircraft or if developers needed to make changes. No one seemed to know. Now I wonder if this is related to the "fix" that he's talking about.

Scott

A quick note for clarity. In cruise you DO typically lean a TCed aircraft, even below critical altitude, but this is done for fuel efficiency, not to maintain power.

Edited July 23Jul 23 by tttocs

4 hours ago, Matchstick said:

I believe the primary issues was that leaning the mixture could result in increasing fuel flow.

Exactly this. For the type of flying that I like to do (Loooong flights, as long as the aircraft allows) it kills my immersion. If the aircraft allows, I like to do flights of 5, 6, 7 hours etc. In order to reach that I need to go as high as possible (Usually 10k if the aircraft is not pressurized) and then extract the maximum autonomy from the engines by leaning as much as possible. So in my situation I always hit the bug.

Wait a second, I thought when you set best power by leaning, you are going to increase the fuel flow. Is that not correct?

At any rate, it's interesting how everyone has the "thing" that breaks immersion for them. Clearly I didn't care about this issue but some do. The most important thing to me with addons is that the avionics work as advertised. I hate when an HSI doesn't react to the GPS sensitivity changes like from TERM to LPV etc. Or sometimes the HSI and Glidepath don't work at all! (Looking at your carenado). That kinda stuff makes me irrate.

Edited July 23Jul 23 by ryanbatc

2 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

Wait a second, I thought when you set best power by leaning, you are going to increase the fuel flow. Is that not correct?

Well...

If you had said "when you lean for best power, fuel flow will be higher than leaning for best economy", you'd be right. But the way you stated things, no.

In the real world, the more you lean (as in, pull back on the mixture control), the more fuel flow drops. Unfortunately, that's not how the MSFS piston model works.

Scott

Edited July 23Jul 23 by tttocs

18 minutes ago, tttocs said:

Well...

If you had said "when you lean for best power, fuel flow will be higher than leaning for best economy", you'd be right. But the way you stated things, no.

In the real world, the more you lean (as in, pull back on the mixture control), the more fuel flow drops. Unfortunately, that's not how the MSFS piston model works.

Scott

I am a little embarrassed that I misunderstood this for the last 25 years since I've held my license. I don't have a ton of hours though.

Still that's pretty bad oops! Learn something new everyday!

Honestly through work I've come across a lot of pilots that also don't understand everything, so I think it's okay to learn something new.

It’s been many years since I flew pistons so maybe it’s my memory but I don’t remember the mixture leaver needing to come as far back as it does in the sim to lean the engine ?

1 hour ago, ryanbatc said:

I am a little embarrassed that I misunderstood this for the last 25 years since I've held my license. I don't have a ton of hours though.

I wouldn't feel too badly about it. I had never flown a plane that even HAD a fuel flow gauge until I started flying a 172RG Cutlass for my initial complex/retract endorsement. Most older fixed prop planes weren't equipped with them. Nothing I'd flown up to then (152s, 172s, Warriors and Archers) even had one - not counting my very first hour of instruction which was in a V35B owned by a friend who happened to be a CFI.

Scott