It’s a very nice plane, but the dark windows tint in cockpit view is a little bit too much, like others have said before. Here’s a comparison between external view and cockpit view, same time and place. Would be great if we could disable this dark tint in cockpit view.
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How do you properly lean the mixture in this plane? As there is no discernible RPM change or change of engine sound, or an EGT gauge, it feels a lot more like guesswork than in other planes.
Here it is.
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Do RPM actually change in this case in a variable pitch propeller aircraft?
Thank you TallHyperion, but unfortunately on Xbox we are stuck right now with the dark windshield tint.
I’m not sure. My uneducated guess is that the propeller RPM should stay the same but you would hear how “healthy” the engine is sounding based on the mix you’re giving it.
I think I hear a difference, but maybe I only imagine it. 
I have looked at several POH scans and it appears the Beaver was equipped with auto mixture.
To obtain economical fuel consumption
for cruising operation, the carburetor is
equipped with an automatic mixture control to
provide for mixture leaning at the proper fuel/
air ratios for all altitudes.
IRL the mixture lever is used to select one of several operating modes depending on phase of flight. This is not simulated in the model that Milviz ported. Instead the standard Asobo engine model is running underneath. Watching sim variables with an external tool shows relatively normal behavior of fuel consumption and EGT when operating the mixture level.
It is unknown if any mod could map the RL behavior. I think it would be difficult to change the level markings without the source. Lot of WASM too.
If I could suggest a direction to Got Friends it would be to add some engine performance information like EGT to a second tablet page. And then user could use standard mixture control logic.
Currently this is kind of a mess with excessive fuel consumption. Maybe the best interim step is to enable the sim’s auto mixture assistance.
Not the Microsoft Beaver version. The legend aside the mixture lever says full rich to fuul lean. The Beaver versions with automix show something like “Autorich” and “Autolean”.
Looking at Youtube videos from current operators it appears that some have replaced the auto-lean mixture system with pilot-controlled.
You would have to expect the 1947 auto-lean system was hard to keep serviced properly. Especially in a bush airplane.
I see add-on EGT gauge at 20:25 below the xpnder.
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I think that would be a good solution in the sim, too. That might be something that can be done with a 3rd party mod?
At least the Bendix NA-R9B carburetor that was used with Wasp Jr. on Beaver seems to have originally had manual mixture. Seems other Beavers were fitted with NA-R9C, maybe that had auto mixture then.
Yeah, the Thranda Beaver for X-Plane has the auto-lean system as an optional add-on but comes with the manual system by default. There are likely still plenty of beavers out there that are still using the manual system though. I personally like the manual system, the beaver is meant to be a very raw airplane, and it has a certain level of charm to it having to manage all this stuff as you fly. I just wish the implementation of it in the Blackbird / Asobo version was a little better. Having the auto-lean system as an option that you could toggle on or off via the tablet would be nice to see though.
Hi, I have an Elgato Streamdeck. With the flighttracker plugin at flightsim.to you can easily get an EGT readout. That makes leaning very doable. The simvar for this is: GENERAL_ENG_EXHAUST_GAS_TEMPERATURE__1 (1 is the engine you measure the egt and the beaver has but one 
) Maybe you can use other ways to read this simvar.
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Leaning is tricky in this plane indeed. On the ground if you set RPM to 1000 for example, you can observe it rise or fall with mixture changes as long as it’s below governing speed. Based on this I did some tests at different altitudes to get a rough idea of where the mixture lever should be for given altitudes.
Alternatively, I’ve found some luck in getting to cruise speed, then slowly changing the mixture and seeing how my speed changes, since more optimum mixture settings mean more horsepower.
It’s the best we can do for now I guess. Many Beaver operators just don’t go over 3000 ft a lot and don’t need to lean.
The CHT gauge should help with leaning in flight. It’s not as precise as an EGT but works the same way, just needs more patience.
At least, it should. I have not tried it in MSFS.
The problem with the CHT gauge is that it barely moves when you lean. In the beaver for FSX and P3D it did! Thats why I now use the EGT.
So, right now, without the help of external tools, the only way to lean correctly is by hear? listening the engine, as happens with the c152?
Ah, thanks. Disappointing. I’d have expected better from Milviz. I’d say they’ll hopefully update, but who knows how much effort they’ll continue to put into a free addon.
- Milviz was paid for the addon, it was not a pro-bono effort on their part
- They’ve already responded that MS/Asobo owns the product, and MS/Asobo are responsible for updates, not Milviz. Granted, that may mean that MS/Asobo owns the source code, or it could mean that any updates would have to be driven from MS/Asobo and negotiated as further work for Milviz.
I think, if there are real problems, that an update would be forthcoming. The issue is, where are the problems? For example, the problem with the CHT could be an internal issue with the code and have nothing to do with aircraft per se as well. So a future update to that code could fix the Beaver, and other aircraft at the same time. At this time it’s unknown if any bugs in the Beaver are due to programming in the plane or the base MSFS SDK/software. As bug reports role in, Asobo is going to have to sort that out. So please be sure your bug reports contain exactly how to reproduce the problem and what the actual issue is. If they can’t replicate it, it will be marked as solved, and will move on to the next bug report.