Airfile question

[PJMack]

What area of the airfile can be increased to allow the aircraft to fly at greater altitudes? Also, what controles the engine power? I would like to increase this as well.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Rami]

Reply..

Pjmack,

Critical altitude (found in section 505 in AirEd) is one of the biggies. The critical altitude is the highest point where the power assist of the turbocharger / supercharger is able to maintain the engine power available taking off (or at least close to it.)

As far as engine power, you can also affect this through adjusting factors like engine displacement, compression ratio, horsepower, and manifold pressure.

Lastly, going into the aircraft.cfg and adjusting the power and thrust scalars (which are typically set to 1.0 by default) are the quick 'n easy way to do this. You can adjust them in whole numbers, tenths, or even hundredths.

 

[PJMack]

Rami,

I tried all your excellent suggestions and at 5500 ft the aircraft acts as if it is starving for air. The power cuts back dramatically. Could there be something that I am missing?

Thanks again,

 

[bearcat241]

PJ, in the interests of accurate results, we gotta get more detailed with this technical stuff. What's the model (which also tells us how many engines and type, as well as how many props per engine)? What's the current HP, displacement and compression ratio? Is it normally aspirated or turbo/supercharged? What type of carburetion - fuel injected, gravity carburetor or aerobatic carburetor? Does it have emergency boost? Do you have "Always Automixture" set at "TRUE" in the air file? All of this data can be found in the air file alone, if you know where to look.

Also, have you checked your SETTINGS > enable auto-mixture control and your joystick hardware settings lately? Another member was having power problems recently with a model and it turned out to be related to the throttle calibration on his joystick.

Post the air file and aircraft.cfg in zip attachment for analysis...

 

[PJMack]

Oh great and most wise Bearcat-san,

Once again you have used your omniscience of this sim and looked into my computer, must get better firewall, and figured that I did not have the "auto mixture" checked off.

Thank you.:salute:

 

[bearcat241]

Well, you see, that's the funny thing...i keep my SETTINGS box checked as ON, but i make sure all of my propellor driven air files are set to OFF or "FALSE" in the record 505 line which says Always Automixture. I maintain this setup in order to prevent any high altitude power issues with jet powered models, which don't have 505 records in their air files. That's why i asked about the Always Automixture thing in your air file first.

By doing this, i maintain manual mixture control in props and auto mixture by default in the jets.