Could some kind soul explain to me what the heck this does, on the turboprops?I have basically no clue. I jam it forward to 100% before I take off, and haul it back to 55% while idling on the tarmac. Is that right? It seems to have something to do with fuel consumption, but I'm not sure I quite get the relationship between this, and the throttle.(I do basically understand mixture on piston engines, running a little ROP, etc).I tried to google for a good explanation, but came up empty.John/madmax

Generally in Turboprops, the condition levers usually have three positions - full cutoff, low idle, and high (flight) idle. The low idle position provides the ability to go to a lower engine RPM when the Throttle is moved to the IDLE position. You could set the condition lever to the low idle position during descent to landing since it gives you a greater range of engine RPM to control airspeed. It doesn't mean the throttle can't provide the necessary engine RPMs if needed to increase power or airspeed.Also don't get this confused with Propeller RPM which is controlled by the Propeller condition levers. Usually the Propeller RPM is set as the throttle is advanced to the governing range to around 1300-1600RPM for a particular aircraft (See POH for aircraft for proper propeller RPM).On the ATR-42s instead of the condition levers, they have a handle called a Idle Gate with two positions - Low Idle - out/High Idle - in. Again it only effects the ability to reach a lower Engine RPM when the throttle is at the idle position.

John:Basically, it controls the %rpm range of the engine. Ground Idle is used for taxiing, for which you don't need as much power and therefore you can save on fuel and on engine wear.In some cases, such as the Garret engines on the Swearigen Metro III and IV, the steering is also tied to this condition lever (Garret calls it speed lever), when in the Fly (High) mode, you have no steering (unless you press a button on the throttle) so upon landing, you must move the (left) lever to Ground (Low) before you can really start taxiing!!!Take care,Alejandro AmigorenaCheshire, CTFly! II Beta Team MemberAthlon XP 1800ABIT KR7A-RAID768Mb RAMMSI GeForce 3 Ti 500 64MBSB Audigy GamerCH Flight Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USB

Ok, cool, thanks for the info.John/madmax