Oil pressure woes

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'm flying the TBM-930 from KSEZ to KBKL for my first night flight (yes, fully loaded with fuel, JUUUUST shy of the max takeoff weight!).

 

Not long after climbing to my designated altitude of FL300, the engine suddenly starts revving way down and then I get the oil pressure alert on the CAS...then the pressure drops and so does the oil temp. Prop's still spinning, but no thrust.

 

What am I doing wrong? I'm careful not to redline the torque, even when taking off (and that runway was JUST long enough with a full tank!).

 

I do understand, though, that the turboprop logic in MSFS is totally screwed up and that Asobo will address that in a later update. Perhaps the modeling is a touch too sensitive/unrealistic to engine performance?

Do you use any kind of throttle assy with your yoke/joystick? Any chance you have a lever for mixture, even though the TBM is a turboprop and doesn't use a mixture control? Sounds like a fuel cutoff problem.

Yeah, I have a CH Products Pro Throttle, but I've done a few flights now with it and didn't really have this problem. I mean, I did have an oil pressure failure once before, but I thought that was probably because I redlined the torque a little too much. I was trying to follow the PoH of throttle recommendations before I learned the turboprop logic in this game is completely borked.

 

Only other problem was cabin pressure, but I learned how to fix that pretty quickly in mid-flight (dumping bleed).

 

Can't think of any other reason for oil pressure failure, except maybe I set it in summer? The OAT was below 0, so I doubt that.

 

I do have mixture assigned to a paddle axis on my joystick, but I can verify it does nothing with the TBM-930, and rightfully so.

 

Also, how does fuel cutoff affect oil pressure?

Edited April 7, 2021 by CLE_GrummanTiger
Added question at end

I'm careful not to redline the torque, even when taking off (and that runway was JUST long enough with a full tank!).

How about prop rpm during cruise?

Was that kept within reason?

That’s automatically tied into the throttle. Always at 2000 during flight.

In the real world a TBM, probably couldn't get up to FL30 unless it had used up a lot of its fuel. Maybe try using step altitudes as they do IRL.

There is a TBM "Mod" somewhere on the official forum did you try that?

 

I tried flying the TBM once (without the mod) but the handling was so unrealistic I went back to flying my FS9 vintage SF-260.

The TBM Improvement Mod is available at flightsim.to: https://flightsim.to/file/8288/tbm930-improvement-mod

As to his response on the "other" site, it had to do with mixture being tied in to his throttle lever(s) and fuel cutoff!

I do have the TBM mod installed, yes. And yes, on the "other" site I mentioned that I read up a bit more about it and found out that if I have mixture mapped to a controller button or axis, that it apparently cuts off the fuel if I have the mixture set to cutoff, despite the fact that we're not supposed to be able to control it. It's weird, though, because the problem doesn't occur every time I fly it.

 

Chalk it up to a quirk of the programming within MSFS.

 

I'm moving on to the CJ4 now, and I think that's going to be my plane of choice for a majority of the flying.

 

I do want to fly the Pitts or Extra through a valley at high speed, though, just for the heck of it, but fear my PC will start smoking from the extra workload.

I still think it may be caused by the fact that the plane was too heavy to maintain 30,000 feet (where the air is thinner.) If you look at Flight Radar 24 you'll see airliners leaving the west coast for Asia are all at about 30,000 feet at 100 miles out, then they begin to climb, and as they approach their destinations, they are at 38 or even 40 thousand feet. Inbound traffic to the west coast is at FL 38 or so. I'm sure it's the same on the East coast for traffic to Europe.

 

Asobo probably has this effect built into their model.