747 is a slow climber

[SkyCountry]

I just recently flew a flight from KBOS to KLAX in FS2002 with a 747, and it took a long, long, long time to get up to my cruising altitude of FL340. Is this normal? My "Vertical Speed" was 800 ft. per minute.

[N700MS]

Did you use the autopilot? When I fly the 747 I usually climb at 2500fpm. Try trimming the pitch up to get a higher rate of climb or click the vertical speed on the autopilot up more.

[SkyCountry]

Didn't you stall?

[Voyager]

I usually climb at 2500fpm and never stall... SkyCountry... how fast are you climbing? climb at 240kts until at 10,000ft then climb at 300kts till the point you reach cruise speed which is Mach .862 at 37000ft. That's pretty much the standard flight speed and altitude. Give it a try.

[Stonec0ld]

A fully-loaded 747 is supposed to have at least some difficulty climbing to cruise altitude until some fuel is burned off, as it's just too heavy to maintain both the vertical speed and horizontal airspeed..... I've never been on a real 747, but apparently it's not uncommon (actually a standard procedure?) for a fully-loaded 747 to step-climb to cruise altitude as the fuel is burned off.

If you ARE able to climb all the way to cruise altitude, fully loaded with fuel, at 2500fpm, then that particular 747 is not using proper flight dynamics......

So, if the 747 loses airspeed and/or stalls while climbing above FL200 or so, it's to be expected... just reduce the vertical speed until the airspeed starts picking up... level out and cruise for a bit at your current altitude if necessary (unless you're flying IFR on FS2k2's ATC...)

Hope this helps, and if I'm wrong, someone will likely correct me..... :-)