C-130 Flight Help Please

[Driftwood]

I'm making a flight and transitioning to my assigned altitude (FL290). Around FL260 I begin losing control and the aircraft starts dropping like a rock. Now since I haven't flown this high in my 130 before I'm thinking I haven't set something correctly that's causing me to lose power/lift, although things seem to be running alright. What am I doing wrong?

[tigisfat]

I've never had this problem in the C-130. Are you stalling?

[Driftwood]

It appears to be a stall but I can't understand it. It's like the aircraft "hits" it's ceiling at approx FL 260 but the 130's ceiling is around FL330 (according to FS Cdr). Do I need to change the flight characteristics in FSX or is this something that's dynamic in FSX (i.e. the rated ceiling is X but on any given day it may be more or less depending upon conditions)?

[tigisfat]

what kinda KIAS are you pushing when it happens?

[Driftwood]

what kinda KIAS are you pushing when it happens?

I'll check it and let you know.

[alexm]

It appears to be a stall but I can't understand it. It's like the aircraft "hits" it's ceiling at approx FL 260 but the 130's ceiling is around FL330 (according to FS Cdr).

I don't have this plane (I do fly other complex add-ons), but my question is how heavy is your aircraft, meaning how much fuel + cargo do you have onboard? An aircraft carrying 100% of its load capacity cannot achieve its maximum altitude until you have burned enough fuel off.

Someone who owns this aircraft can post and let you know if this applies to this aircraft.

If this is the case, then you should load an appropriate amount of fuel (en-route + alternate + contingency + taxi, etc.) for your flight, and set you initial cruise altitude to the optimum for that weight, then 'step climb' en route when appropriate (can you tell I fly LD 767 and PMDG 747? ).


Regards,

Alex M.

[Herc]

It appears to be a stall but I can't understand it. It's like the aircraft "hits" it's ceiling at approx FL 260 but the 130's ceiling is around FL330 (according to FS Cdr). Do I need to change the flight characteristics in FSX or is this something that's dynamic in FSX (i.e. the rated ceiling is X but on any given day it may be more or less depending upon conditions)?

I don't know about flight sims, but in the real world you are lucky if you get to FL260 in a C130 lol. I have been as high as 24k on a C130 and we were hanging on the props and freezing our assess off. FL330???@#!! good luck with that, possibly the plane may get there under optimal conditions ( I really doubt it, at least none of ours will), but the crew will be frozen stiff lol.

[Driftwood]

It's definitely sounding like I'm stalling out based on what Herc and Alex are saying. I will have to "hit the books" and continue to learn while flying this baby..... It certainly isn't a single engine cessna!

hehe, just checked the Lockheed website. Their brochure for the J model lists FL280 as the ceiling..........