from what i see, the mixture is no longer 0-100% but now off-low-high.
it’s really annoying trying to pull the mix back a little and accidentally kill an engine.
between the mix change and the massive inop ped, i feel like i have to rebuild the aircraft myself. in VR it’s an absolute chore to use the mfd-pfd touchscreens, especially if you’re trying to scroll a flight plan. that’s the entire reason the fms section of the ped exists.
The King Air 350i does not have a mixture control, because it has two turboprop engines.
Turboprops use a different type of fuel control called “condition levers” that have usually three positions: Fuel Cut-off, Low Idle and High Idle; in that order working from down to top position.
Fuel Cut-Off is used when shutting down the engines, as its name says.
Low Idle modifies the maximum and minimum N1 usable (62-104%).
High Idle modifies usable N1 too (70-104%).
This lever has free movement and an off-center “notch” for the low idle position.
Apparently the last update has made it so that you can only select high idle, low idle or cut-off and nothing in between, much like in the real plane but kind of synthetic.
You don’t need to adjust the mixture on a turboprop, they are turbines.
I hope this clears some of the confusion, there’s a lot of information online about the differences on carbureted, fuel injected, turbo-charged, turboprops, turbines and turbofans.
I recommend, if you’re interested in aviation, you take a look at this book which is one of the basic books student pilots use. It’ll be of great use on the sim too, especially if someday it reaches a higher level of systems simulation.
I’m linking to Ch.7 which is Aircraft Systems. The book is free on the FAA website, along with some others on their free library.
https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/phak/media/09_phak_ch7.pdf
Have fun!
P.D. Here’s the link for the book
https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/phak/
It is.
I don’t know if it is a bug, it is definitively annoying for people that have a throttle quadrant.
It is better for users on controllers, I guess that was the purpose.
post above needs some love, it was bugged, now fixed but it was bugged so long people just took it as that’s the way it work… thankfully i’m not the only one to get it wrong
Can you set physical detents on your levers?
(I’m actually using my old Virpil CM2 throttle for fuel mix and have a “bump detent” mod which gives me physical feedback when the levers pass through various stages.
Honeycomb Bravo here, I don’t know if theres a mod for lever detents, I have the flap detent mod for the B737 on X-plane.
Looks like it is a bug, the levers don’t move if you set them with throttle quad levers, they only move when clicked.
Microsoft Store version
Noticed after SU6
I used to be able to grab each lever with my left-mouse button, and adjust downward or upwards depending on my altitude (or whatever condition I was dealing with). Now, no matter what I try, I am only able to move each either to Low Idle, Fuel Cutoff. or max. Nothing in-between. There is a little up or down arrow indicating which way I am allowed to move the lever.
Anyone else seeing this issue with the King Air 350?
Yes. You are not alone. Looks like the binding to the Mixture Axis for my throttle quadrant doesn’t work any more either.
Same here on the grand caravan, using bravo throttle quadrant and mapping it to mixture worked prior to WU6. Now there’s no “engine condition” axis to map to…
I noticed that in the release notes for SU6, there is mention of Condition Levers functionality and checklist updates. I wonder if this functionality was incorporated into the update, because the way it was previously, there were issues with users not fully understanding exactly where Low Idle, Fuel Cutoff, and Max was located with the 100% free movement. This way, there are only 3 choices for the positioning when performing cold starts, so there is less room for error. I can see how this might benefit totally new users. But for those of us who appreciate having the realism of the fine controls of the fuel condiitoning levers…it takes away a bit the realism of the simulator, and gives it more of a “game” feel. Now there is no way to fine tune fuel management when flying at high altitudes, lean out the mixture to fine tune performance, etc.
Makes it easier for XBox users to click in a setting.
Meanwhile, there are several thousand throttle quadrant users that are wondering exactly what good their fancy hardware is and why they spent so much money on them just for the dev’s to turn around and take away 33% of their functionality!
Not at all.
There’s no mixture control in any turboprop IRL.
You can’t tune fuel management, there’s nothing to lean or enrich
and the condition levers don’t affect performance IRL.
The LOW position is only there to keep the taxi speed acceptable low.
For flight ops they are always at high.
You don’t move them into any other position than either LOW or HI IRL (and in the sim) and they don’t affect the engine parameters at all in flight.
Prior to SU6 the condition levers did affect engine performance in flight, which was wrong.
That is good to know! So these do not work the same way as the mixture lever works in the smaller single engine aircraft? Looks like I still have a lot more to learn. Thanks for the info!
Exactly. That’s why it was IMO a severe error to call the condition lever tooltips “mixture”.
They only thing they basically do is, to reduce the fuel flow at idle.
As soon as power is applied, the condition lever position doesn’t make any difference.
Minor detail, but on the 350 High idle is only ever used after starting the right engine to help recharge the battery quicker. Then it goes back to low idle where they both stay for the rest of the flight. Only exception is if you are doing a maximum reverse landing, then you go to high idle so the engines spool to reverse quicker. But that is never really done, as nobody needs a “max” reverse landing in the KingAir. But yes, no relation at all to a mixture control on a piston.
Hi,
On the real aircraft the condition levers are on an axis. Why did the devs remove it? It worked fine with my Honeycomb Bravo.
Just tried the condition levers in the KingAir and there they still work. But on the Caravan the condition lever is now broken.
P.S. Forgot that I (thankfully) still had the King Air 350 Engine Fix mod installed.
https://flightsim.to/file/19809/king-air-350-engine-fix-prop-feathering-prop-speed-ignition
Sorry, you are correct of course, the 350 is for some reason different than most other PT6 equipped aircraft.
The important point for the OP is (luckily) still valid.
Once the power levers are above idle, the condition lever position doesn’t affect engine performance/parameters.
Is there any key binding possible ?
