You do have to take conditions into consideration. 20,000 feet is with “Normal” conditions (15 C and 29.92 at sea level, that is per the manual. Real life normal is 10 C). You will not make 20,000 feet in conditions warmer than this.
After some testing I find it is performing much better than prior to the update. People reporting not noticing much difference may have forgotten to remove the turbo mod. I am finding that it is performing very close to the specs in the included manual. I have had it up to 172 kts indicated using the max performance settings (These are found on the inside edge of the pilot’s visor). After this update I no longer intend to use the turbo mod (which I was using until just recently). Overall the latest update has made this plane a joy to fly again.
I have not yet tried high altitude testing, but have had climbs with it loaded with my wife, myself (about 330 pounds) and 80 pounds of luggage. Not close to max weight, but how I fly in real life. I was able to get climbs between 1,000 to 2,000 ft/min. less as I went higher, even with leaning. Will test service ceiling another day.
As already mentioned by several people it is on the left side of the left part of the yoke handle.
Thing is, it is a little red switch that you cannot see from the normal seating position. You need to look from over near the left hand window to spot it and get the mouse onto it …
In real life of course you do not need to see it to press it.
This is an excellent analysis and exactly my experience since the mod. As you say the mod makes it an absolute joy to fly again and I’m now flying it a lot more, Nice to have it back…
Ah, THAT’S what I can’t find it! I fly in VR, so it’s pretty much impossible to reach with a mouse click. If I can’t see it I can’t click it. That’s why I’ve been trying to find a keystroke to bind to a yoke button.
Thanks for the help, everyone.
So, I tried to take the Mooney up to higher altitudes last night, and it is still pretty weak in this area. Getting up to 10,000 ft was not a problem, but could not attain the settings in the manual. I kept the airspeed between 110 kts and 120 kts. All needles remained in the green. Except the CH was slightly in the yellow. Despite leaning for peak power the climb gradually reduced to 100 ft/min. This was around 14,000 feet. Also, despite very careful fiddling with the mixture the EGT needle gradually crept toward 0, no matter how I set it, which happened right around 14,500 ft.
This was in standard conditions (weather was turned off) This was with full throttle and 2500 RPM. By the way, full throttle is not only for emergency power, as was suggested above. It is what FT means in the manual, and it is required to maintain manifold pressure as one goes higher.
Overall, It is better than it was prior to the recent Mooney update by Carenado, but it becomes increasingly impossible to fly it “By the numbers” the higher you go.
Density Altitude makes a difference. The service ceiling is Density Altitude not AGL. An altimeter indicated of 14,000 feet in summer can actually be more like 18000 feet or more Density Altitude.
Also in real life non-turbo Mooneys were rarely flown at those altitudes and according to some pilots really struggled … this link is about the M20C with way less HP but gets the point across …
The Carenado one may well be still underpowered, but do not expect miracles from a normally aspirated Mooney.
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. I have a few here that will show the value, as well as weakness of the recent update. This was flown in standard conditions (weather turned off). The goal was to attempt to set 75% power (or the best possible for the altitude) starting at 4,000 feet and climbing up to 20,000. Spoiler, I was able to make it. It took almost 2 hours to get to that altitude. Without further ado, here are the pictures:
Since I can only do 5 at a time, What I’ve attempted to show is the settings at each altitude, and the performance in climb and at cruise, once the altitude is attained.
The plane performed quite well up to about 10,000 feet. Pay attention to the Fuel flow at each altitude after this. The minimum power could be attained, but the maximum power figure could not. I trimmed for max fuel flow at each altitude, and was always able to attain the minimum, but not the max.
I have submitted photos and description of the issue to Carenado. I’m not optimistic about a speedy response, but at least this plane is fun to fly again. It’s really not bad all the way to 12,000 feet. After that it is more work than fun.
To get any sort of performance over 10,000 feet you need some sort of pressure normalisation, usually a turbo charger. There is simply not enough air at altitude for normally aspirated engines like the M20R. Hence the turbo version of the M20R that Mooney sold.
Simple fact, the standard M20R in real life can get to altitude but it will struggle. For reasonable performance at altitude you need the turbo model.
For PC Users - there is a turbo mod to convert our MSFS normal M20R to the turbocharged version, though I have not personally tried it the reviews of it are very good. Darshonaut already posted it above, but here it is again:
Carenado Support, Jan 26, 2023, 09:04 GMT-3:
Greetings,
Thank you for your feedback.
Yes, it is a known issue with the sim that mixture doesn’t adjust to the turbo aircraft parameters, we already report them this issue.
We adjusted the setting the closest as possible to the manual.
Regards,
Carenado.
I have tried the Turbo mod from Flightsim.to, but not since the update. The initial release was a bit overpowered, but there was an update to the Turbo mod prior to the MSFS update that tamed it down a bit. I have not tried the Turbo mod since the Carenado update, but that is my next step, given the unlikely hood of any help from Carenado.
