MSFS - Flying on Step Myth

[@Rodhern]

There are (at least) two major obstacles to examine this myth. (1) The airplane burns fuel and is getting lighter and gets better performance as the flight progresses. This alone might (or might not) explain the old aviator tales that after an hour they finally "got on the step". (2) Even if the effect exists in real life, it is only going to show up in Flight Simulator if it is modelled! As I remember the 'theoretical explanation' I heard was that if speed convergence is sluggish, then convergence from fast towards equilibrium is more beneficial than convergence from slow towards equilibrium.

[@alphabravo1214]

The technique you performed will actually work (and it bought you 10 seconds), but not for the reason the myth would have you think it does. Attempt 1: Climb to 1,000 feet, pull throttle back to cruise, wait for the speed to come up. Attempt 2: Climb to 1,100 feet, pull throttle back to cruise, descend to 1,000ft and wait for the speed to come up. Do you see the difference? That extra 100 feet of climb gives you a little bit more time at full throttle (just under 10 seconds worth, 10 seconds sounds familiar right: it's the same amount of time you shaved off your first attempt), which gives you more energy, so you should reach your final cruise speed faster! You could just as well climb to 1,000 feet and leave full power on a bit longer to have the same affect. Or, if you want to truly test if the altitude has any bearing, try it again but leave the power on full the entire time.

[@pipedreamin]

I remember this one back in the 90’s. I tried it out on a x-country flight in a 172 here in AZ summer. Cruise was always slow at 8,500 on those old beaters and by the time you were over 6,000 you were only getting 100fpm when lucky (often holding best climb would get you negative fpm). My finding was the extra minute it took to climb vs. the 3-5kts over best climb that ended up being cruise just not worth it.