A Few Performance Observations

[Anthony Clark]

I know it was mentioned that performance tweaks would be coming after some other priorities were taken care of.  I'm just going to mention a few things I've noticed.  In the manual, it says there is virtually no performance difference between the 4 and 5 blade propeller variants.  After several flights with both, the 5 blade variant is about 20 knots slower.  Standard temperature and pressure at 22,000', I get 271 ktas with the 4 blade and 252 ktas with the 5 blade.  More blades should theoretically increase takeoff and climb performance at the cost of a few knots cruise speed.  Definitely shouldn't be 20 knots slower.  Also, both of those cruise figures are way too slow for the MU-2B-60.  The dash 60 variant is supposed to be a nearly 300 knot airplane.  Cruise speed should be in the 280-300 ktas range depending on altitude, temperature, etc.  Final observation is that pulling the condition lever back to 96% rpm at cruising altitude causes ITT to increase.  ITT is usually already near redline at that point with the power levers at maximum - resulting in about 60% torque at 22,000'.  Coming back to 96% rpm puts ITT over redline.  Meaning, you can actually cruise faster at 100% rpm because you can run higher torque.  Not sure if that is realistic behavior or not.  Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun with this plane.  It has quickly become my new favorite.  Thanks for all the hard work and dedication in creating this gem.

[CaptCrash]

There is an unofficial mod that addresses the cruise perf for the 4 bladed prop

[Anthony Clark]

The performance discrepancy seems to have been fixed in the XP-12 version.  The 4 blade cruises at around 285 ktas and the 5 blade cruises at 280 ktas.  Speed drop-off with altitude increase is not as severe either.