King Air 350 IAS problem

[Guest SD Sim]

Good evening all,For the past week, I have been flying the King Air 350. I have noticed a peculiarity at cruising altitude. Despite full throttle, props, and mixture, I can only attain a maximum IAS of 260 knots, and the indicated speed on the cockpit flight panel is 220 knots (sorry about the terminology, I have forgotten what the correct term is here). This is true with half full (to almost empty) fuel tanks. And in case your wondering, flaps and landing gear are up. My CH yoke (USB) has been calibrated with the latest version of FSUIPC, and the throttle quadrant matches the throttle control on the yoke, so I am applying full power. I would think with these powerfull turboprop powerplants that I should be able to achieve overspeed without problem. I've searched the archive to no avail (lots of posts regarding excessive taxi speeds). I notice that there is a rewritten air file by Steve Small that is no longer available, and I'm wondering if the air file is the source of my problem. Is there anybody out there that has encountered similar problems?

[LAdamson 240]

Have you checked the GPS in no wind conditions for your actual ground speed? You didn't mention the cruising altitude, but at higher altitudes with "thinning" air molecules, the indicated airspeed is far less than actual.L.Adamson

[Guest lawyerpilot]

for the KA. Glad to do it.CMBP4 1.8768 ram 80 gig hardriveVisiontek Ti4 4600CH yoke/pedals19" inch monitor-Soundblaster PCI 512Win XPPrivate PilotAOPALawyerPilots Bar AssociationNTSB Bar AsssociationPIC- Warrior, Archer, 172N-SP, Aztec, Malibu SIC (for fun)- Conquest, King Air c90"Men without dreams are never free, twas thus this way and thus will ever be."

[Guest SD Sim]

Sorry, I thought I covered everything, but as you correctly pointed out, I left out my cruise altitude. The answer is FL135 (13,500 if I'm using the terminology correctly). Also, I think I mixed up my indicated air speed with actual ground speed. My actual ground speed (speed indicated on the GPS) was 260 knots, while my IAS (that's on the cockpit guage, right?) was 220 knots. I should be looking this up in the manual, I know, but I don't have it handy right now :-shy . Also, I left out the wind, which was out of the west (270) at 8 knots, and I was flying a NNE heading (030).

[Guest lawyerpilot]

No big deal but as a future heads up, it is FL0135 b/c FL135 would be 135,000 feet! :) FL040 would be 40,000 ft MSL , etc. P4 1.8768 ram 80 gig hardriveVisiontek Ti4 4600CH yoke/pedals19" inch monitor-Soundblaster PCI 512Win XPPrivate PilotAOPALawyerPilots Bar AssociationNTSB Bar AsssociationPIC- Warrior, Archer, 172N-SP, Aztec, Malibu SIC (for fun)- Conquest, King Air c90"Men without dreams are never free, twas thus this way and thus will ever be."

[Guest]

I have a lot of experience flying the KingAir with Steve Small's flight model. According to your report, the default plane does seem really underpowered. With Steve's FM I wouldn't need full throttle (can't remember how much I exactly needed) to get that ground speed at FL250. I would suggest that you fly it higher to save fuel though, the KingAir has a pressurized cabin and can reach FL350. Although I usually take it up to around FL250 since getting it to it's max altitude takes too long.The KA 350 despite it's smooth lines and 1000+ shaft HP engines is not as susceptible to overspeed as you may think. I have only gone near the Vne during a descent at full throttle. Remember that it weighs almost twice as much as the C208, 15000 lbs. MTOW. -Leon Medado

[Guest SD Sim]

I don't know how high up the space shuttle flies, but I bet I would be close to rubbing elbows that high up :-lol

[Guest SD Sim]

Thank you Leon and Christopher (and Steve),The culprit was the .air file. All is better now. In fact, the plane handles much better than it ever has in all aspects of flight. It's a shame that these Steve Small fixes are no longer available to download :-(