No doubt been asked before but is there a reason why when I switch to co-pilot he decides to fly at 250 knots max and 7500 feet and is there a way to change this?
Many thanks
He does so (at least in the US) because that’s the speed limit for all aircraft under 10,000ft MSL. The one exception is the T-38, if I recall correctly, because it has to maintain higher airspeeds due to its aerodynamics.
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Is it always 7500?
The copilot will fly at the cruise altitude you’ve selected in your flight plan, or the altitude assigned to you by ATC if you’re flying IFR.
He’s also got this weird thing where he looks at your cruise speed, which is typically measured in true airspeed, and tries to maintain it in indicated airspeed, (e.g., if your listed cruise speed is 107 KTAS then he’ll attempt to maintain 107 KIAS). So unless you’ve got an aircraft that’s capable of substantially higher than its listed cruise speed, you’ll be doing 250 knots or less under 10,000 ft and he’ll probably keep the throttles pegged once he gets above that. In a real aircraft, this would not be good for your engine(s) and it would also burn a ton more fuel than necessary.
He’ll also typically limit climb rate to ~2000 ft/min, so if he’s flying the A320neo (for example) he’ll probably be doing 400 KIAS by the time he gets to 15,000 ft or so, which is something that just isn’t done in the real thing.
In some aircraft he’ll undershoot the runway by a considerable margin, often leading to an off-runway landing (or just a crash).
Needless to say, they’ve got a lot of work to do on him before he can even approximate a safe startup-to-shutdown flight.
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It’s also much more fun to just fly by yourself.
Also, 7500 ft sounds like the selected flightplan is under VFR rules. You can change the altitude when planning the flight. As already stated by others, anything below 10,000ft is restricted to 250kts
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Thank you! That was the answer I’d been looking for. Set it up in the Nav and it works a treat as far as speed/ altitude is concerned. Still sinking into trees or buildings on descent mind so I’ll do that bit myself.
In many European countries, an ATC controller can give any aircraft permission to exceed the 250 knot speed restriction if traffic conditions allow.
A controller in the US cannot legally give a clearance to exceed 250 knots - but the FAA regulation regarding speed limits specifically gives the pilot in command authority to fly at a faster speed if the minimum safe speed with flaps fully retracted is greater than 250 knots. In this case the pilot does not have to request permission to do so, nor can ATC prohibit the faster speed.
This would only apply to a very heavily loaded aircraft (like a 747) on departure. Most controllers at airports that regularly handle international departures by large aircraft are aware that they may need to exceed 250 knots in climb once cleaned up.
This only applies to departures. Arriving aircraft in descent must always adhere to the 250 knot limit below 10,000 feet. Even an international 747 flight, by the time it arrives at a destination airport in the US, will have burned off enough fuel weight to be able to maintain 250 knots or less
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I don’t have issues with the speed the copilot is flying in, never paid notice to that.
Maybe that reply was for somebody else ?
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You wrote that the copilot flies 250 knots at 7500ft. Is the problem that it doesn’t go higher than that, or is the problem the speed, or is there another problem I failed to understand?
Already opened a Zendesk ticket in November about Co-pilot overspeeding when above 10,000ft, on 747 and 787
#69632
But I checked recently, this is not yet fixed at the moment
No that wasn’t me.
I just wrote that I find the co-pilot useless in it’s curent state.
He/She has crashed the pane numerous times. Flew into a mountain, tumbled into the ground, weird stuff.
I did put it on when I needed to take a break or answer the door or answer the telephone or whatever. But now I just pause the sim. If a plane has a real Autopilot, of course I use that.
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alright, thanks.
I must confess that I’ve only had the game a couple of weeks and hadn’t checked the nav which was basically always set to 250 knots and between 7500 and 8500 feet. Rookie error but sorted now thanks.
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Slow? Speed or mental capacity? It’s not very kind to call your copilot slow 
(My humor is dead)
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I can assure you that he’s both. Only works somewhat properly in a handful of planes (Jabiru 170 and the CT182 among them).
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