Hi Kevin,

A while ago I found and downloaded the flight manual for the EC-130G which is the US Navy variant using virtually identical engines. A manual for the -E and/or -H models has so far eluded capture.

This AFM has a full performance section and is available from Avialogs.

There are pages and pages of graphs for specific fuel consumption, range prediction etc which should answer all your questions, and I have used the info to produce a table for PFPX which I am adding to slowly. So far it has Max Climb, Long Range Cruise, 290kt Cruise, and Max Cruise at limiting speeds for three AUW regimes, descent and holding.

Apart from climb speeds to 20,000 ft, none of the documentation that CS had available for download gives any clue about power settings, fuel flows etc. I'm working on a performance guide based on the AFM data, that will contain climb speeds and fuel flow settings Vs altitude, and for the various cruise profiles provided for in the AFM. Once that's done I'll make it available as a pdf for folk to use.

Also, the CS aeroplane fuel flows are about 17% higher than the real aircraft. I have edited the [turboprop_engine]section of the aircraft.cfg to read: powerspecificfuelconsumption=0.846888 instead of 1.0000 which is too high.

I have tested it at high weights and at a variety of flight levels and it works pretty well. I would suggest this to the people at CS but I haven't been around for long enough to be allowed to post anything other than replies.

In the real aeroplane, power is set either using TIT or fuel flow. TIT will not work on the CS plane for setting power, but fuel flow works a treat. While testing I set the wind to 0 and then used the GPS groundspeed to determine the actual TAS.

Specifically relating to your post, at 26000 ft at maximum cruise limited by 1010 degrees TIT at 150,000 lb AUW, you should have a TAS of 316 kts and total fuel flow of 4928 lb/hr which is 1232 per engine. The CS plane will let you set much more than that and you'd think nothing of it. 8000pph is more like climb power at around 2-3000ft.

If you're interested in this stuff let me know and maybe we can communicate more on the subject.

Cheers,

Chris