Aircraft speed

[jakob]

Hi, How does one increase aircraft speed? I have gone into map view and changed speed from the default, but speed does not increase. I type speed for Cessna 172 at 120 but speed keeps going back to 80. Thank you

[TSC.]

Hi Jakob,

& er, wow - thats quite an open question you've got there The primary way to increase airspeed is to push the throttle to maximum - or descend, but the effects of increasing speed by losing altitude don't last very long  :)

When you increase the airspeed by your method, that will only set the speed for your aircraft for when you resume flight - unless your throttle & mixture are set correctly, you will not be able to maintain 120kias (Don't worry to much about the fuel mixture, I guess it is set to automatic).

Airspeed is affected by so many factors, it might be difficult to pinpoint your particular problem. It may be to do with your control input via your joystick/keyboard IE, is your joystick throttle calibrated correctly? Do you use the mouse to move the throttle on the screen?

Is the throttle on the screen all the way in?

What altitude are you at? The higher you get, the lower your KIAS will appear.

Cheers,

TSC.

[jakob]

Hello, Thanks for response. Um, yes joystick is callibreat. I use joystick to increase speed. I was flying about 10,000 ft. I was trying to get to my destination quicker. If I uae flight plan,set auto pilot, should I not be able to fly at speed that I want? Thank you much.

[Isak922]

At 10,000 feet a Cessna 172 won't be going very fast with your Indicated Air Speed. Your really going much faster on the ground. Also, the Cessna 172 isn't exactly the most powerful plane out there. Depending on the wind, You might only be going 70-80 knots at full throttle, or you could be easily going much faster (100+). As Theysellcoke said, Try diving a little, that way you'll gain some airspeed, and maybe hit some better winds  :)

[TSC.]

Hi Jakob,

Your too high for the 172 to make decent headway, although the service ceiling for the default 172 is 14,000ft, the air is thinner - imagine the prop trying to pull you through the air by gripping the actual 'air' - not much to get hold of up at 14,000 ;)

Try the same route but at 5000ft.

Here's a simple experiment to try in order to demonstrate the problem.

1) Enter a waypoint destination into your GPS - once this is done, look for 'GS' in the bottom left corner of your GPS, this shows your Ground Speed - which is completely independant of your Airspeed.

2) Get your 172 flying along, full throttle, at 10,000ft - use the autopilot to keep it on a certain heading.

3) Compare your Airspeed to the Ground Speed shown on the GPS.

4) Now change only the altitude of your aircraft in the map menu, also use the map menu to reset your speed to 120kias.

5) Reset your altitude to 5000ft & compare your Airspeed with your Groundspeed again - (wait for the Airspeed to settle first).

6) Repeat No. 5, but set your altitude to 14,000ft.

By doing this you can see how the altitude has directly affected the performance of your plane - there is a balancing act between gaining speed by flying too low or too high - I suggest you try between 5000ft -> 8000ft & see how you get on.

Cheers,

TSC.