King Air 350 Cruise Speed, how do I?
Mikael K
After hours of search and trial, I will have to turn to the Pro's.. (That's
you, folks...) ;o)
I recently took a flight with the default FS9 King Air 350, from my
home-airport EKBI to ENBR.
In the flight-planner (FSCommander, trial-version) the trip was configured
as a Navaid Plan, was calculated to 321NM and a flight-time at 01:03, @FL200
and speed 315Kt.
When I finally got to my destination (and I did not get any detours by ATC),
I had used about 01:40 flight-time, engines stopped right after touchdown as
a lack of fuel, and during the trip I wasn't able to get even near a speed
of 315 Kt GS, but more like 240-ich.
Looking at the data-sheets (FS9 or RL) for the Beechcraft King Air 350, they
do say that the King Air 350 has a High Speed Cruise-speed at 312Kt @FL240.
I then decided to do some test-flights, to see what cruise-speed I could
achieve...
Starting out with 50% fuel and 250kg (~550lbs) payload, following the
checklist, letter by letter, at FL240 and Torque at 80%, I should be able to
get 220-240 KIAS (torque and speed stated in an King Air 350-checklist from
Simvation.com). But no matter what settings I did on Props or Throttle or
what-ever I tried (except going into a descend), I never made it to speeds
above 205 KIAS (ca 285Kt GS).
What could I possible be doing wrong? Or is it normal not to be able to
achieve the stated cruise-speed?
Regards
Mikael K
--
Sorry.. no direct reply-email.. ;o)
Handsome
confusion between IAS and TAS.
Assuming the above is OK then the only other thing I can think of is
flaps not fully rretracted or gear still down.
Martin
Handsome
Mikael K
Well I must admit, as I'm not that experienced, I could have
misinterpreted/misunderstood the data.
That is also why I turn to you fellow Sim/RL-pilots.
As for the checklist, it is stating to be for the default FS9 King Air
350...
The link to the mentioned checklist:
http://www.simviation.com/fs_manuals8.htm
Excerpt from the checklist:
----
Cruise Checklist
Accelerate to cruise speed 220-240 KIAS Torque 80
----
And from the manufacturer of the King Air (Raytheon Aircraft), the specs
says:
---
Cruise Performance
High Speed Cruise
Speed: 312 kt/359 mph (578 km/hr)
Fuel Flow: 773 lb./hr. (351 kg./hr)
Altitude: FL 240
---
Regarding whether the speed is GS or IAS, I assume it to be GS...(?)
As for my possible confusion between IAS and TAS...
The way I understand it, the Airspeed indicator on the dash-board shows
IAS..(?) and KIAS is IAS when measured in knots?
And as for TAS, I don't know how to measure/read that one.. or exactly what
it is.. ;o)
The speed readings I refer to in my original post, is that from the Airspeed
indicator (KIAS?) and GS reading from the Garmin GPS...
With regards to the wind, I had a wind @30-40Kt from changing directions
around 7-10 o'clock on the trip from EKBI to ENBR.
When doing the following test-flight I had a crosswind @25Kt from 9 o'clock,
and was able to get around 200Kt KIAS (around 285Kt GS).
For test I turned against the wind, and my KIAS stayed around 200Kt.
Meanwhile the GS dropped to 265Kt (expected).
When turning 180', now getting a tailwind, my KIAS still remained @ around
200Kt, but GS raised to around 315Kt (also expected).
Of course I could have forgot the gear or to retract the flaps...
But I was suspicious to that my self, and did check several times
(instrument and visual) on the test-flight and both was OK.
So... Have I got my understanding of the various type of speed-measuring
right?
Or is it just me that are understanding the specifications and actual
readings wrong?
Are there any of you that are getting cruise-speed at 220-240Kt KIAS @FL240
in the King Air?
If so.. what do you do to get there? ;o)
Handsome
Only got 200 KIAS / 295 TAS at FL240
Thought it may have been de-ice that was loosing you power (which is
modelled) but it was off.
You can get higher indicated air speeds (220 at FL150) but that won't
get you there quicker.
Haven't used the default a/c for yonks. Made me realise how shit they
are now compared to recent payware and freeware Posky and iFDG etc.
Martin
Martin
Mikael K
On 19-Jan-2005, "Handsome" <tdbsc...@btconnect.com> wrote:
> Just had a go.
> Only got 200 KIAS / 295 TAS at FL240
> Haven't used the default a/c for yonks. Made me realise how shit they
> are now compared to recent payware and freeware Posky and iFDG etc.
He he he...
At least I know that it's not me, that just don't know how to fly.. ;o)
Thx for your effort on this matter.
Think it is about time to download some freeware, or even start looking at
payware AC's..
Unknown
wrote:
>>>>>>>>>Starting out with 50% fuel and 250kg (~550lbs) payload, following the
>checklist, letter by letter, at FL240 and Torque at 80%, I should be able to
>get 220-240 KIAS (torque and speed stated in an King Air 350-checklist from
>Simvation.com). But no matter what settings I did on Props or Throttle or
>what-ever I tried (except going into a descend), I never made it to speeds
>above 205 KIAS (ca 285Kt GS).<<<<<<
Hello,
I still enjoy flying the stock FS9 King Air (downloading new sounds,
paints, etc.), and posted about cruise-speed problems a while ago.
Here's some cut-and-pastes of the posts:
___paste___
Trying to match long range cruise speed settings (and high-speed
cruise) posted at the Raytheon site, I ended up changing 2 values in
the aircraft.cfg file:
fuel_flow_scaler from default 1.00, to .76
power_scaler from default 1.00, to 1.26
Long range cruise speed at FL-330 is fairly close now. High-speed
cruise is still too slow but better than before.
------------
With the King-Air fuel-scalar number at .76 and power-scalar at 1.26,
this is what I'm seeing at high-speed cruise/power settings.
FL-240 295 KTAS (close enough to 312kt for me)
FL-260 305 KTAS
FL-280 309 KTAS
FL-290 312 KTAS
------------
I noticed after changing the above values, FS9's Flight-planner
'Estimated Fuel Burn' also changed. It seems to estimate about 20%
more fuel required, compared to the stock aircraft.cfg. Although
actual flights don't seem to require the extra (estimated) fuel.
Oh well the (stock) FS9 fuel estimate is not that accurate anyway,
and it's easy enough to calculate fuel required for most flights.
___end paste___
p.s. I've since changed the values a bit, the plane seemed a bit too
powerful (overall).
A bit lower, to:
fuel_flow_scalar = .82
power_scalar = 1.20
Mikael K
On 25-Jan-2005, "outa...@vz.com" <PiingLough> wrote:
> I still enjoy flying the stock FS9 King Air (downloading new sounds,
> paints, etc.), and posted about cruise-speed problems a while ago.
> Here's some cut-and-pastes of the posts:
This post is certainly a keeper.. ;o)
I will go adjust the mentioned parameters.
It will be nice to be able to (somewhat) trust the flight-plan and
fuel-calculation again..
Thx for replying...