C172 - Altitude at low temperature

Hi Guys, I'm still pretty new to this game. So far I've done only a couple of hours in a C172. When I fly at temperatures around 0° Celcius or below I can hardly climb above 3000ft. Is that a bug or is it just normal for this aircraft? I tried both auto-mixture and manuel. Made no difference.

Look for the Carb Heat lever/switch, your carburettor is icing up. Also switch on the Pitot Heat.

FWIW, I've had a look around the C172 cockpit and couldn't find the carb heat lever (which isn't to say it's not there, I guess). I also tried adding a key-binding for carb-heat and I couldn't find a setting for it (yes, I looked under the "All" filter). This led me to believe that 172 in the sim is fuel injected.

 

All conjecture though...

Make sure your flaps are fully retracted and mixture adjusted as you climb.

I suspect that because modern 172s are fuel injected, they no longer need carb heat.

That should only come into play in descents anyway.

Are you within max takeoff weight limits, and are you climbing at the recommended climb speed???

C172S doesn't have carb heat. (0C is a good temperature to get max engine efficiency)

 

Check the Flight Model in General Settings is Modern

 

Assuming you are starting from sea-level, 3000 ft should be no problem at all. If you are starting at +5000 ft amsl though, you're definitely going to need to "lean" out the mixture, although the aircraft is good for 15000ft if set up correctly.

 

Flaps up, use 75-85 knots as a good climb speed.

 

As for loading try the default 50% fuel and two crew which again is well within the capabilities.

 

Are you using any addons that might affect the aircraft in the Community Folder?

 

Finally try another aircraft - the C152 is not as powerful but still a good performer, as is the Robin DR400. If it's still the same with those my guess is you have an installation problem.

Check the Flight Model in General Settings is Modern

...

Flaps up, use 75-85 knots as a good climb speed. As for loading try the default 50% fuel and two crew which again is well within the capabilities. Are you using any addons that might affect the aircraft in the Community Folder?

 

 

- flight model is set to modern

- 50% fuel

- flaps all up

- no addons

 

I start around sea level in real weather conditions. Currently I'm crusing around the northern sea area and the coast region of germany. This means temperatures are low, clouds deep and a lot of moisture. I should mention that after take off I can easily climb to 3000ft but it doesnt take long and the aircraft starts to ice up. Then airspeed drops after a couple of minutes and the cessna begins to stall, meaning I have to get lower. At 2000ft cruising altitude the ice is still there but at that altitude I can easily maintain more than 100 knots. When I try to climb again the trouble starts all over again.

 

 

Finally try another aircraft - the C152 is not as powerful but still a good performer, as is the Robin DR400. If it's still the same with those my guess is you have an installation problem.

 

I love my Cessna with the G1000. I'm not ready for a new relationship yet :)

It seems like the issue is the icing and that would be expected in a real plane like the 172 that is not certified for icing conditions. Ice builds up on the wings which reduces lift and adds weight.

 

You must have found the pitot heat switch or you would soon start seeing erroneous reading of airspeed as well.

Aha - airframe icing! Look in the options settings again and you'll find an icing setting - you can either choose visual only or icing effects., it's not (currently) possible to turn it off completely. You've obviously got the "full effects" set as the behaviour you talk about is most definitely caused by airframe icing. Exactly as happens IRL (although personally I think the sim overdoes it a bit).

 

The C172 is NOT cleared for flight into known icing conditions.

Edited January 16, 2021 by terrylawdinn

Yes, this was helpful. Thank you guys :pilot: