[SOLVED] SFC and critical altitude of Saab 340A

[Daac]

Team LES, the Saab 340A is without a doubt my favorite aircraft in XP10. Thank you! I was looking at it in plane maker, not to make changes, just to see what the SFC was, and noticed that the critical altitude was 8500'.

If Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC) is the same at "low altitude" or "high altitude" for turboprops and critical altitude is 8500' (max altitude at which the engine can put out its maximum allowable power), but the service ceiling is 25,000', why would one ever want to fly above 8,500'? I interpret this to mean that as long as terrain and ATC aren't issues, I would want to fly no higher than 8,500'.

I suspect that I really need to learn to read the charts, something I've never had to do. Thanks for your enlightening explanations.

[Goran_M]

Basically, you can study the acf file all you like, but the vast majority of this aircraft, in particular the engines, is run by Gizmo with acf figures providing a starting point.  The entire engine system has been coded from scratch.  We had to manipulate a lot of figures to provide this starting point, but, even if you're going in there just to see what we did, please do it knowing that the engines, as well as most of the other systems, are being driven by code.  

This is actually one of the reasons I wish we could encrypt our files.  Not for "security",  but because we know some people will start asking why we did some things we did.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Goran_M

[Daac]

Goran, thank you. There is no need to explain any further. You all set the standard with the Saab. I look forward to future aircraft with the same fidelity. Take care...... and a well earned vacation.