Taking off from KASE (7500ft) in the Milviz 310r I am struggling to take off and gain altitude. I have to climb at about 200fpm to keep the speed above 100kts and stop it from stalling. In the end i eventually slowly climbed to about 14,000 feet at which point the plane simply would not climb anymore and the speed even when flying level would not go above 100kts. I have tried to lean out the fuel mix but it barely helped.
Is this normal ? would a plane like the 310r not typically take off at such high altitudes ? i assumed it would have enough power to comfortably take off at this altitude.
At higher altitudes, piston aircraft will have a harder time taking off - if you had taken off from sea-level, you’d gradually have to lean out the engine to eke out best performance the higher you go, as you’ve already done. That’s the condition you’re starting in at a higher altitude - it’s a bit of a penalty. It would be an even bigger penalty if the ambient temperature was high - the two more impactful Hs of the worst-case High, Hot, Humid takeoff.
That’s why most aircraft you see at higher elevation airfields are turboprops and turbine jets - reduced penalties for them. And the exception is Turbodiesel prop planes. TDs will hold performance all the way to the end of their envelope at max ceiling - DA62, DA40NG are two of the stock sim planes that are TDs.
There’s an amphibious aeroplane parked on a high-altitude lake in Kenya. It flew in ok, but was unable to get out as the air was too thin. The natives used it for domestic purposes such as shelter etc. I don’t know if any of it remains but it was probably in the 1950s.
A good friend of mine worked for an oil company there and related what he saw. The craft made multiple attempts to take off but each time ran out of “runway”.
As others as mentioned above, piston engines really struggle at high altitudes due to thinner air. In real life when operating from such altitudes, I will check for what’s know as “density altitude” and there is a limit to it. Many AFMs (Aircraft Flight Manuals) include a maximum altitude and temperature for takeoff/landing to which aeroplane can be operated safely, If the ambient conditions exceed those limitations than performance is not guaranteed in real life.
Now I am not sure how accurate modelling is in MSFS but in order to improve takeoff performance, You could possibly decrease your payload and fuel and see if that helps. Milviz from my FSX/P3D experience seems to be quite realistic