Beech Baron G58 Engine Controls Wrong / Incomplete

Brief description of the issue:
The G58 Baron is missing most of its engine control functionality and some of the few things it does have are incorrectly modeled. This makes it impossible to match the cruise power settings shown in the POH. The primary issues I see are:

  1. Mixture Control is On/Off
    The mixture control gives zero fuel from the bottom to about 1/4 forward. From there to fully forward, you get 100% fuel. This makes it impossible to properly lean the engine.

  2. Missing Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) Display
    All cruise power settings in the POH are stated in terms of being a certain amount lean or rich of peak EGT. In the real plane, the EGT can be shown on the MFD. However, this cannot be done in the game. Of course, as noted above, the mixture canā€™t be leaned anyway.

  3. Engine Temperature Changes Not Modeled
    Once the engines start, oil and cylinder head temperatures remain constant regardless of power settings, airspeed, air temperature, or cowl flap settings. This makes it pointless to bother with the cowl flaps. They move but have no effect.

Detail steps to reproduce the issue encountered:

  1. Start a flight in the Baron on a runway with the engines running and mixture control fully rich. Move the mixture control back while observing no change whatsoever in engine manifold pressure, RPM or fuel flow. This will continue until you reach about 3/4 back, at which point the fuel stops and the engines die.

  2. Start a flight in the Baron with the engines running. Page through everything on the MFD and fail to find any EGT readout.

  3. Make a complete flight in the Baron: start, takeoff, climb, cruise, landing. Along the way, observe that the displayed CHT and oil temperatures never change once they stabilize after starting. Operate the cowl flaps during the flight and also observe no effect.

Did you submit this to Zendesk? If so, what is your ticket #?
Yes: #54947 back in September 2020.

Agreed. Flying this a ton now that itā€™s winter due to the anti ice and speed. Disappointed I canā€™t use my Bravo throttle quadrant with props and mixture.

3 Likes

The Baron is my favorite plane amongst the stock MSFS stable so Iā€™ve been flying the thing a lot since the game came out. Speed and grace attract me. But thereā€™s no ā€œantiā€ ice, itā€™s only de-ice, and thatā€™s a bit feeble. Itā€™s a good thing to have to cover your gimpy retreat but by no means does it give you license to fly in known icing for any significant amount of time. MSFS is rather generous in allowing the whole windshield to defrost instead of just that small rectangular area mostly blocked by the whiskey compass but airframe de-ice is limited to inflatable boots, and the prop de-ice is heated areas near the hub. So with the airframe, you need to let the ice build up enough to rob you of about 10 knots, to give the boots something to work with. As for the props, expect them to sling hunks of ice into the sides of the nose. and for that to start before the wings ice up. As always, best bet is to avoid the ice.

3 Likes

Itā€™s such a shame to have a premium aircraft so mistreated by the developerā€¦

5 Likes

The most annoying thing for me are the mixture levers automatically going to full-forward when you crank the engine over - nice ā€˜realismā€™ there