curious Baron 58 flight dynamics

[J G Parker]

Any Baron 58 pilots out there?  I've noticed something odd about this A/C's ceiling and cruise.  The reported ceiling is FL200 but if I climb to anywhere near this I can't get into a straight and level configuration.  The difficulty is that the Manifold pressure drops with altitude (as expected) such that above 10000 if is approaching 15 in.  To keep a climb I need to compensate with increasing pitch up.  By the time I reach FL195 for example, I'm about 15 dg nose up with an IAS of about 100.  Clearly unacceptable.  Further, to level off I must still keep the nose up 10, and can only travel slowly.  If I put the plane in a level configuration there is no power setting that will hold it up, and it loses altitude pretty quickly.  I've found I can't fly straight and level above 9000.  I've played with the prop RPM and mixture, but nothing boosts power enough to let me cruise above 9-10000 at anything close to the IAS 170kn that the MS help says should be possible.  What am i doing wrong?  Thanks!

[FSTipster]

The Baron Flight dynamics have been dramatically improved by FSD, who recently released FSDtwinS.zip.

It's much more accurate than the default, but beware - if you have anything but the default Baron panel installed, the auto-installer will lash it up.

You can extract it to a temporary folder, but the replacement gauges FSD provide don't always workk straight away.

The only thing I found wrong with FSDs version was the empty weight value, which wasn't out by much compared to the manufacturer's spec.

[J G Parker]

Thanks Tipster!  Coincidentally, I downloaded your panel a couple of days ago and was planning to install it this week end when I have the chance.  I saw the reference to FSD in your readme but it was "greek" to me.  Sound like I should get this first then, and then add your panel?  BTW, sorry the FSplanet people behaved like jerks.  What you've done is a great service and my hat's off to u.

[FSTipster]

Well if you've got my panel it's actually a lot easier.

Install to a temporary directory and just cut the gauges and .air and aircraft.cfg files to the usual folders.

My panel.cfg takes care of the rest.

Thanks for the sentiments re: FSPlanet.

[J G Parker]

Okay, I give up...Where do I find FSDtwinS.zip?  Seems like something i should know, but...

[FSTipster]

If it's not in the library here, I think you'll find it at Avsim.com or Flightsim.com - definitely one or the other (or both).