Snarf

Traditionally hydraulic systems are powered by engine driven pumps (EDPs) supplemented with electrical pumps. The mention of air driven hydraulic pumps bemuses me as I know of no aircraft which does this. The 787 though is almost wholly electric in its power for systems which were traditionally powered by customer air, this includes the air conditioning and pressurisation systems which consume a lot of air. On the 787 these are now driven by electric motors. My guess with regard to RAT employment is that the engines are at idle minimising electrical power and they are supplementing that with the RAT power out put.

I am having a lot of difficulty with the steering of the Mig 21, following the manuals instructions to the letter I can barely get the aircraft to turn. There is no mention of differential brakes in the manuals or commands for them. There seems to be a lot of talk of valves attached to the rudder system which allow you to differentially brake however once again no mention in the manual. I have seen some people complain that the aircraft turns to easily on rudder alone, this has not been my experience at all. I would prefer it to operate realistically but that manual should be updated with clearer instructions on how to turn the aircraft as the present ones don't explain at all.

Think you were right Buzzles, repositing my joystick seems to have cured the problem. Flies very nicely now. Wings falling off seems better too now, this may have been caused by stress from the sudden pitch ups, The P51 while not as good an aircraft in general as the FW190D is the best gun platform I think, in the end stable shooting is a big plus. Thanks for the suggestion.

Most German pilots from the time of the K model were barely able to fly with as little as 18 hours flying time before combat. In any machine that was a death sentence and good pilots could wring a lot out of a 109. So I think historical comparisons and especially those quoting Octane ratings for fuel are somewhat meaningless, all the more so since the Octane ratings aren't actually Octane ratings but performance numbers :)

The 109 they show is actually a Spanish one with a Merlin engine.

Flying the P51 on the intercept mission I find that I have random bouts of what appears to be elevator flutter accompanied by rapid but brief pitch ups. Assuming the controls are programmed to be properly mass balanced this shouldn't be happening. This makes it almost impossible to shoot straight as every time you line up the target you get a sudden pitch up which throws off your aim. This is in straight and level flight so no other factors should be affecting it. I'm running a high end graphics card and computer and have no problem running the program on max everything with good frame rate and smooth video so I don't think its a performance issue from my end. Depending on which type of flight I am doing the problem may or may not appear but is consistently there for the intercept.

The load limits given are a figure the aircraft must meet, most aircraft are able to go well beyond the load limits stated. For instance airliners with a limit of 3.5 G have often not failed till 5 to 5.5 G.

I am finding that I get wing failures when in a gentle high speed turn, this is happening far too easily as I am only attempting to match the turn rate and slowly catch an AN26. I also seem to have an elevator flutter problem and am aware this could contribute as it causes small but swift pitch ups to occurr.