User Guide

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Finally, the bottom row has gauges for the left and right fuel
tanks (60 gallons each). Unlike the Cessna, the Mirage doesn’t
have a BOTH position on its fuel selector (located at the bottom
of the instrument panel); it’s up to the pilot to switch back and
forth between the tanks. Maximum permissible imbalance is 10
gallons (60 lbs); if it’s exceeded, the FUEL IMBALANCE light will
come on in the annunciator panel as a reminder to switch tanks.
An easy way to run the fuel system, assuming you’re starting out
with a balanced fuel load, is to take off and climb on the left tank,
keeping track of fuel consumed, then switch to the right one after
you’ve burned 10 gallons (or as soon as the FUEL IMBALANCE
light comes on). This should be right around the time you level off
at cruise altitude; and since the airplane burns about 20 gph at
cruise, you can now just switch tanks every hour and know that
the two tanks will always be within 10 gal or less of each other.
ICE PROTECTION SYSTEMS
Anyone who’s spent the big bucks for an airplane like the
Mirage - a new one will set you back somewhere slightly on the
wrong side of three quarters of a megabuck! - doesn’t just want it
to be a fair-weather friend. Unlike most other singles (even most
high-performance ones), the Mirage can be equipped so it can be
flown legally in known icing conditions. Controls for the ice pro-
tection systems are at the top of the right-hand radio stack.
There are four separate systems. Three of them, operated
electrically, can be used as de-icers (i.e., to get rid of ice once it’s
formed), but are better employed as anti-icers, to prevent it from
forming in the first place! The propeller blades are heated electri-
cally, turning on and off on a 90-second cycle; you can monitor
them on the small ammeter marked PROP AMPS. The windshield
heat has HI and LO settings. Two further switches provide heat to
the pitot tube and the stall warning vane on the left wing.
The other system, providing ice protection for the wings and
tail, has to be operated as a de-icing device, i.e., it can’t prevent
ice from forming, but can get rid of it once it has. This surface de-
ice system has rubber “boots” along the leading edges of the
wings and tail surfaces. Once
1
/
4
to
1
/
2
inch of ice has formed,
pushing the SURF DEICE switch will cause these boots to be
sequentially inflated with air from the output side of the vacuum
pumps, thus cracking the ice off.
The top two circular instruments, reading from left to right,
are the manifold pressure and tachometer. This is logical, since
they’re arranged the same way the power levers are. Also, since
these are the two engine instruments that you’ll be using most, the
lower two digital display windows, directly above these two vital
gauges, are permanently dedicated to them. High-resolution digi-
tal readouts of any of the other gauges can be obtained by push-
ing the button next to the gauge. The readout will appear in the
top window of the appropriate side, while a green light next to the
gauge will indicate which one is being displayed digitally.
The two gauges in the second row are both affected by the
mixture control. From left to right, they are Turbine Inlet
Temperature (TIT) and fuel flow. Pushing the button to the left of
the TIT gauge brings up its fine-resolution digital display in the top
of the left window at the extreme top of the stack. The digital dis-
play for fuel flow is a bit more sophisticated. Pushing the button
to the right of the fuel flow gauge brings a digital readout, in gal-
lons and tenths per hour, into the top right window.
However, pushing the “FUEL” button at the top of the stack
will bring up, on successive pushes, how much fuel is aboard;
how long, in hours and tenths of hours, that fuel will last at the
present rate of consumption; and how much fuel has been con-
sumed since takeoff. In the actual airplane, this unit can be pre-
programmed with the amount of fuel onboard before takeoff. In
FLY!, the amount is automatically transferred from the fuel load-
out you enter on the aircraft setup screen. The other function
available in the top digital display is a readout of outside air tem-
perature (OAT), brought up by pushing the lower button next to
the right window. Accurate knowledge of OAT is important when
calculating true airspeed and correct power settings.
The third row contains the oil pressure and oil temperature
gauges; the fourth, cylinder head temperature (CHT) and the vac-
uum system gauge. The CHT normally indicates the hottest of the
six cylinders, annunciating which one it is by illuminating one of
a row of six lights just below the engine instrument stack. A switch
marked CHT CYCLE below these lights lets you “step” through the
cylinders manually. The vacuum gauge indicates vacuum in the
system as a whole; if either of the two vacuum pumps fails, auto-
matic valves keep the system running while a legend in the
annunciator panel lets you know which pump has become disin-
terested in further toil.
Flight Instruction
Flight Instruction