DeepDrummer

The Spitfire was never a cold weather machine. According to some sections in the book "The Big Show", they had to push them to keep the plugs from fouling and in cold weather they even started them up hourly and bring the Temp up to 100 and shut them off so they would be ready to go at all times. I find the DCS Spitfire works as it should at all times. Too cold? Give 'er at 12 psi boost for a while and clean up the plugs in the process. I Love the Spitfire. Perfection (almost). The Big Show is a great read for Spitfire buffs.

I use a slider at times such as when landing. Half brakes allows me to two point it pretty nicely but it sure takes practice with how much to pull back at that time so I don't nose over. Two point landings are not necessary at all but fun when mastered. I did not do near as well when I had my brakes on the pedals. When taxiing One has to just stab the brakes while deflecting the pedals. The deflection of the pedals routes the braking pressure to the side that the pedal is pressed so you turn that way. Using a button, Deflect pedal, stab. Deflect pedal, stab. If one holds the button too long, it will nose over as the brakes gradually and quickly to full application. Practice just taxiing lots. It took me months to be able to land 10 out of 10 times in a row. I had to be the worlds worst Spitfire taxing, takeoff and landing person. I have been simming since 1987 or there about. Still that Spitfire was tough. Now, it is usually the Spitfire that I climb into. I no longer use curves at all although I use an extension on my stick. After years of practice, I can't remember missing a landing in the last year or so. It is a beautiful thing.

I ran across this issue for about the 10th time in the last 5 years just a few days ago or so. What can happen with Windows is it can re-order the usb devices. True examples (over the years). 1. I plugged in a web cam (HID device) I had no problems until I removed it. Even with the drivers gone, it trapped a usb spot between the joystick and the throttle. When combined. it left an additional throttle and joystick and many variations therof. Uninstalls and re-installs of target and drivers never permanently repaired that. In the end I reset windows with all devices attached and that cam in the garbage. All was well. 2. Plugged in another cam and then unplugged it. Darn. Same same. Locked in. In or out. It must not change. 3. Last week, I plugged a Bluetooth module and the whole scenario came back. Removed, it trapped a spot. Referring to joy.cpl is always a good idea. run joy.cpl. One should see a joystick and a throttle one over top of the other with nothing in between like pedals with the joystick on top for optimal performance although it MAY work otherwise. For a while. When a script is run by gui or otherwise, joy.cpl should show only one combined device (and maybe pedals. All other advice is relevant indeed like ensuring it is not shut down to save power. The majority of these types of issues are usb device footprint conflict related. My machine is dedicated to DCS and to only those usb devices it is equipped with at present. I'll go another year before I forget and do it all again. lol. If Target does not fire up quickly with a fast blippedy blip, you've got underlying usb device allocation problems likely. It is a Windows thing. there are third party things to reorder usb devices. A reset works just fine along with all the re-installs once one finds the offending culprit and promises never to insert it's usb prong again. Truth guys.

The repair situation is confusing. I am going to assume the ground crew only repairs what they saw and internal damage occurred (that is a stretch). I think I'll demand a new plane each time I land. I found it wouldn't roll over under 14 volts which makes no sense to me at all. A 6 cell battery system is fully charged at 2.2 volts per cell. 13.2 volts. Is it an 8 cell battery? Traditionally charging system's voltage regulator allows a charge at 13.8-14.8 (I'll give them their 15 volt regulator in this case). Once the surface voltage is removed, 13.2 would indicate a fully charged battery with that surface charge removed. IMO it should roll over and start even at 12 or 13 volts unless there is an excessive draw on the starting system such as a seized engine or a bent crankshaft or a broken connecting rod from the sudden prop strike. I like to think of it as, you're not just going to need a new prop if you bang it on the ground. Mind you turning over a Merlin would be quite a draw in itself. The bottom line is, I will go back to avoiding glitchy repairs and request a new aircraft which is what I was doing before I read this thread. Test completed. Voltage during repair is bugged and inaccurate. Raindrops on the canopy are gone. Stable version. A couple other things I have mentioned for years... I have a read a few times it is complete. *cough* I'm going flying. Have a great one. I love my Spitfire...anyway

I always cold start and generally shut down to cold as well. Sometimes I even watch the rest of my flight land and park. Assigning them a parking spot helps there.

After reading these posts today, I have been just giving a bit of forward stick on touchdown and land on the mains. The tailwheel settles nice and gently shortly after. I didn't find I had to use any greater speed. Once the tailwheel settles, I pull back with half braking until everything settles out nicely. It works great. Thanks guys.

Even with every power consuming thing turned off, the battery voltage seems to continue to drop while under repair. Ground power does not bring it back. Repair and don't walk away. Restart as soon as possible. Don't use the booster fuel pump for the restart. It takes a lot of power. Wobble pump it after a repair. All lights, radio and U/C indicator and dash lights and anything that consumes voltage need to be off. The Booster Pump is a big consumer. Note: voltage will continue to drop slowly. She won't start if you go to the mess for supper and come back expecting it to be repaired and ready. Repairing under a canopy and in the dirt is not always good. Try to get to a concrete or asphalt area. At this point if I get a prop strike, it is pretty much best practice to restart the Sim in my opinion. If you repair under a canopy, weird things used to happen. Haven't tried lately. Repair is glitched enough that I don't usually even bother anymore. *Stable release" I did a test yesterday after reading these posts. A repair on the hard parking pad returns a smaller bounce and does not "prop-strike" A repair on the dirt taxiway caused the big jump and prop-strike. The repair repaired the prop and it restarted with a bit of effort by making sure power consumption was at a minimum and I didn't dilly dally. I was in the cockpit at all times I watched the volt meter like a hawk and it steadily went down and down and down even with every single thing off. I will be putting repairs back on the back burner for a while if I am not on a hard surface.

If you hold the plastic shaft section at the top of the gimbal, you eliminate any loading of the actual gimble stops. The last time I took my handle off, I was sure it would break if I kept twisting and so I supported the shaft with some thin channel lock pliers. That thicker part could also break of course but no where as easily as the tabs on the gimbal itself. Note where the silver channel lock pliers are. I think that is the best bet. Not 100% perhaps but there is no way safer in my opinion.

I have 90 keybinds bound to my TM Stick alone and easily double that on my throttle. Mouse and keyboard are never required. Target GUI only. super simple. 10-20 things to learn is all. That is 2 long distance phone numbers worth of things to commit to memory. The plastic gimbal finish and lube has always been substandard. I buy a new one every couple of years since I always mess them up by trying to fix them. Due to the excellent software (Target), I would buy another in a heartbeat. It's not for everyone. If you're not using Target, A better stick with a better gimbal could be a better option. It is not bad enough to make me abandon it though. If a Hotas does not allow me to park the mouse and keyboard totally and easily, I am simply not interested at all. Other sticks have other solutions. Chaining commands, putting delays into commands, controlling LEDs and sequencing commands are just a few of the perks of a TM Hotas running Target. Take note. The others need work in this area. Easily done with only the Target GUI. Those options are essential for my own happiness. All of the same things can be done for any aircraft I have tried. The F-18 top won't change that. If I was more into the F-18, I would buy the top. When someone's nowadays tech can easily do everything Target can do, I will concede that it may possibly be better. TM is still on top in my book. DO what makes you happy.

+1 It can get away from you pretty quickly. Saving your profiles to the "saved games" by selecting "save profile" has saved my bacon more than once. I copy "saved games" regularly as a backup as well.

Thank you so much. I should have searched here before wasting the last hour. Great stuff!

I don't mean to play devil's advocate but I think you should keep digging. With Trueview off, your translation axis doesn't rotate with it. Look out over a wing and slide your head right and left. Nothing. With Trueview on, turn your head and look out over the wing and slide your head side to side. The view will follow your head. No turning but side to side. I find true view much more realistic, especially when looking for little switches. It's just more natural to me.

It seems to definitely be DCS that is limiting my personal limits and it is what is keeping me locked in. I can go far beyond the DCS limit when I just look at the calibration screen in Track IR using the same profile. I'd give it a go Mod free with the default DCS curve for the track IR. Start there.

At your own risk! I am no expert but I did the same earlier in the year. Maybe 6 months ago. I just uninstalled and re-downloaded it. When I logged in, all was well and it downloaded the rest. It may or may not work for you and others may have better ways. It DOES save registry entries that probably don't make sense after the update. A re-download, re-install worked for me. (It gets everything nicely where it should be). I had my saved games saved so it all worked out in the end. I have all my serial #s saved as well.

I haven't had the pleasure of talking to anyone Live in DCS World since I haven't used MP much. Not that I won't eventually. Over many years, I tried most of them and I found for full global groups, TeamSpeak worked far better for performance when multiple countries and continents are involved. Discord is out for me and SRS always behaved poorly in my corner of the world. Things may have changed over time but in lieu of VOIP, I would choose TS.

I cannot get my head outside the canopy on the stable release even if I stand up. The camera end of my track IR is 2 feet above my head and about 5 feet away from me which is the best location I have found for my trackIR. My curves only slow things down or smooth it but I didn't change any limits at all at either end. All the Track IR entries in the DCS Controls section Axis are kept stock with no DCS curves other than stock. I.E. In DCS World axis curves they are all 0, 100, 100, 0 I have attached my profile that I use for everything. Depending on your mounting locations and perhaps errant mods or beta troubles, This profile may not be the best for yourself. It is absolutely perfect for myself in the Spitfire LF MK IX running the latest stable release Mar 28 2019 in DCS World The distance away from the camera will change the arc and it could get nasty. I am not convinced the limits at the ends of pitch and yaw are necessary or beneficial. DCS seems to take care of all that. It took me a while to find the new storage location of my Track IR profiles. To help others, they are now stored in: C:\users\(computer name)\AppData\Roaming\NaturalPoint\TrackIR 5\Profiles The Track IR manual does not reflect this change. Thanks for making me find that. Unhide files to find it. I use no MODS nor VR mine.zip

+3 I Love them all but the Spitfire is what gets me into the cockpit and gives me the greatest pleasure. I fly 2-4 missions a day in it and work on missions and campaigns regularly if not daily. I am still noticing things that have been fixed over the years and everything works quite nicely. The Mag test works now. The prop test works now. The supercharger test works now. One can actually do an entire proper pre-trip and procedures and everything works. This is an amazing aircraft if one takes the time to learn it all.

There are 2 trains of thought here and more. To Make a kneeboard specific to one type of aircraft one must create a kneeboard folder under the saved games/DCS (or beta) folder. Then under that folder make another folder of the aircraft in question using the exact name such as SpitfireLFMkIX. put the jpg or png files in here that you want all Spitfires to see in all missions. To make a mission specific kneeboard for a specific type of aircraft, I found that opening up the .miz file (winzip) and making a folder within the .miz for kneeboard and then under that make an aircraft specific folder I.E. SpitfireLFMkIX. Under that folder make another folder called IMAGES and place your jpg and png files in there for mission specific aircraft specific. It works for me. This gets a selection, when you bring up the kneeboard for all missions and the ones that only show up on the specific .miz mission you edited by adding files and folders via .zip program or the afore mentioned utility. Now to get on to investigating individual aircraft specific kneeboards which is beyond my pay scale at present. Thanks for the incentive to dig deeper.

You could use the incr/decr friction lever on the throttle but it has so many great other uses. Brakes on the Spitfire, flaps on others. Even zoom for some. Still, that is the kind of precision you need. Eat sleep and dream pedals. You will need them. The taildraggers are tough without pedals. Jets are not so bad.

Nice one!

A bit of weather and a generous pull on the stick. Pic attached I hadn't flown with weather in a while so this may not be new. I was just blown away by some of the weather effects these days. Beta 2.5.4.28615 Nice stuff!

The gunsight can be turned off as well as the radio. The fuel guage does not use power unless the button is pressed and held. The generator does not draw power like today's alternators can. Mags produce their own power. All power drains can be eliminated. There is no battery switch in the cockpit until later models.

The little switch below the throttle handles can be bound to. U/C indicator OFF U/C indicator ON or toggle Those will turn off those lights. If the dash lights and fuel pump are on, it doesn't take long until battery voltage drops enough that it is too drained to roll the engine over. This is correct behaviour

Outside of some exact date on someone's realism timeline I, for one, would fully support the fact that a Spitfire XIV should be included in this timeline. There were plenty at the time. What some are saying is that not only should we be restricted to an exact date and an exact place, we also must be restricted to only specific battle areas or squadrons while ignoring others. I am glad my simulated world has a wider scope. Then again, My Spitfire IX is fine. Bring on the Mosquito.

The new Canopy is amazing especially in weather. The condensation off the wing tips is a nice surprise as well. Nicely done!