Anyone else find the Airplane Heaven DC-3 struggles to take off at altitude?
I am particularly noticing this as I am flying the 1950: Frontier Airlines misson, in the 40th Anniversary activities.
It’s a marked issue taking off from KGUC, Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional airport (elevation 7,663 ft). It is all I can do to get the DC-3 up to 120 mph (which is the safe speed for single engine operation). I have the throttles full open, propeller levers full forward and mixture set to “auto-rich”. I also take off from 06, rather than 35 which is where the mission will start you for the KGUC to KMTJ leg (the 4th).
I have the same issue with or without the Duckworks DC-3 Mod.
Does anyone else have this issue or am I doing something wrong? sPK
Full Throttle and Auto Rich may be the problem.
Calculate the density altitude for your takeoff elevation based on current temps and pressure.
You may be sitting at 7000‘ MSL but the aircraft and engines are working like they are at 10-11000‘
I am not sure how well the automatic mixture systems are modeled in these aircraft. So you simply may be running to rich. See if you get more power at a leaner mixture. Then go back to auto rich after you pull the throttles back.
You need superchargers at altitude in the DC-3. You should be noticing it struggling with manifold pressure. The superchargers solve that. I believe they are active in the default DC-3 now. They certainly are in the Duckworks.
Yes, unfortunately the Supercharger of the DC3 is not simulated, in theory it would be activated, I have tried it and it does not make any difference, very different from the DC6 that is simulated
I thought they had fixed that for the default. That’s really bad if it’s still not working. I use the Duckworks mod myself so no such issues. Works really well.
I tried this and think you’re not doing anything wrong, it’s a high altitude challenging take off. I used real world weather, clear with 4kts wind straight down runway 24 and 10 degrees centigrade. Got the wheels up pretty quick and trimmed for 120kts with 2550rpm and 35inHg manifold pressure, maximum available power! Mixture at Full Rich gave me the most power, superchargers off, and I use the Duckworks mod. The only thing I’d add is it helps to get the aircraft nicely trimmed as quickly as possible.
