Hi guys,

here some real Herc answers (i'm a co-pilot on this beautiful bird):

1. LOW SPEED GROUND IDLE BUTTONS: the four green buttons on the control pedestal. These things are just there to increase the life expectancy of the engines. In a certain throttle range (9-30°) they can be pushed in to reduce RPM (69-75,5%). When you push the throttles beyond Flight Idle (34°), they will pop out again and normal limits for RPM will apply (98-102%). (A round of beer for the AC if this happens ;-)). In FSX, no big deal though.

2. BRAKES vs POWER. At full power (19600in.lbs) you must be able to hold the brakes. (no parking brake on a RWY ;-) ). In FSX I'm able to do so (Win XP/SP2/ver 1.3). I still have the "left wing drop". This is not normal! BTW, a very light C-130 can take-off in Flight Idle (on a long RWY ;-) )

3. TIP: If you want a full running Herc on the RWY, maybe use the checklist (from cockpit C/L to Line-up C/L) and save your flight there. I was cursing the hell out of my torque setting at zero with full power, but i didn't check my generators on... (so been there done that, flying an out of the box plane ;-) ).

Hope this was helpfull!

Grtz.