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   Flight Basics: using the prop pitch control

   Think of the prop pitch as a manual transmission you reduce the prop pitch to say 95%, and what happens is that the angle of attack of your prop's blades increases a little bit (yet another reason to get rid of the on-screen message).

   High = low

   The greater AoA of the prop blade means that the prop "bites" a bigger "chunk" of air as it turns.
   This is like switching to a higher gear on a manual transmission: more air "pushed towards the tail" for every turn of the prop, so in theory you should get a higher speed at lower RPM settings... except that you don't, because there is drag to ruin the beautiful simplicity of this 'manual transmission' thing, so the highest speed isnt attained at low RPM or at the highest possible RPM, and what's most counter-intuitive is that in most planes the maximum speed isnt attained at full throttle either.

   Notice that a greater angle of attack makes the RPM decrease because of the increased drag: when you see the on-screen message 'prop pitch 100%' you are actually using the smallest possible AoA. The game calls that 100% because the RPM goes up, but that's low prop pitch

   Slow down to speed up

   OK, not really. But reaching max speed in a prop plane the max speed is not as easy as it is in a car. In most prop planes the max speed is attained at power settings that are somewhat lower than the maximum allowable.
This may sound counter-intuitive but it makes perfect sense if you take drag into consideration: it only takes say 50HP to accelerate a car to 100MPH but it can take some 250HP to make 200mph. And accelerating the same car to 250mph can take 400HP or more. The figures are made up, but the principle is real: drag increases more than proportionally.
The same is true for prop blades, so pumping much power and RPM as possible would make fuel consumption skyrocket while speed would stay pretty much the same and in some cases even decrease. Max power is useful for take off, and for some emergency maneuvers, but when it comes to max speed there's a sweet spot where the plane performs better than at full power, there are different 'sweet spots' (optimal pressure/RPM) settings for different situations (climb, cruise, max speed, economy cruise, etc), and of course each plane has its own best settings.

   And the best settings are...

   ...found in the manual, of course.
   How do I figure out the numbers is obviously the first question that comes to mind when you realize why 'flying by the numbers' is important, but figuring those numbers out isn't easy. That's a test pilot's job. It takes a lot of flying by expert test pilots to figure out what the best settings are. After passing all the prescribed verifications, the numbers finally make it to the AC manual. There you read what RPM and throttle settings you are supposed to use in a climb, in combat, for max speed, for cruising, and to save fuel (economy cruise).

   Optimal settings are different for each plane, and even gathering as many manuals as possible (many are available on the internet if you have the patience to find them) you should also take into consideration that the manuals for a real plane may not match the behavior and performance of the same plane's in-game counterpart. Some reference sheets are included in the Fusion Pack's Documentation folder.