Seeker,
you are correct in your assumption. You would want a finer pitch (less bite) on take off versus the time you would want to gain fuel economy.
In AH when you are taking off the pitch is on it's finest (flatest) pitch allowing the engine to rev up and make the most power similar to your analogy of a lower gear in a car. I'm not exactly sure how HT implements this but I beleive there is a certain amount of automatic pitch adjustment during the flight envelope. When you change the rpm from it's default setting using the +/- keys on the numberpad you can only change the pitch to a coarser setting, i.e. more bite. That reduces the engine rpm and therefore the amount of power it can generate and increases your fuel economy.
In real life you would not only make mp and pitch adjustments but you would also adjust the mixture of the air/fuel ratio going into the cylinders. You cannot adjust mixture in AH. I suppose that it may be tied into the rpm control some but not sure if HT even implements that aspect of adjustment.
As far as slowing down for a landing there are several ways to do this, one is the use of flaps and then of course the reduction of throttle. You also need some room for all this to happen in. I try to approach a field in such a manner as to have some time flying straight and level parralel to the runway in the direction opposite the direction I will be landing in, that is called the downwind leg. During that time I keep adding up trim and reducing throttle to put the aircraft in a nose high position and stablize the speed some. After passing the end of the runway I start a turn towards a point that would intersect with a line running through the center of the runway, this is called the crosswind leg. During this short time from downwind leg to that point of intersection I am still adjusting aircraft attitude and speed, dropping more flaps and possibly lowering the landing gear if I am below 150mph indicated.
I then turn to final, or base leg. By this time I should have stabalized my speed to the 120 to 130 mph indicated airspeed, I should have full flaps and gear lowered and I should have the right amount of up pitch induced to where I can control my decent with the throttle only. More throttle slows the rate of decent and less throttle increases the rate of decent.
Notice, I am not using the elevators to control this, I have the aircraft's attitude adjusted with the trim and I am only using throttle to control rate of decent.
At touchdown, if all went well and you did it right, you should be just above or just at stall speed. I like to touch down concurrently with a short blast of the stall horn. I also land with brakes engaged since that makes it "stick" and not bounce. You can with a lot of practice make it stick without the use of the brakes but you really need to be smooth when you do.
[This message has been edited by Mark Luper (edited 03-11-2001).]
