grafspee

@Mogster Wasn't dorsal fin added at some point so some examples may don't have it.

Max continuous which is 46" 2700rpm is not enough power for dog fight, i use military rating 61/3000 and i can go with that power +15min, only thing i watch is the speed.

I don't have much of problem to beat AI in P-51, once you keep this solid rule don't drop below 200 mph, P-51 is a great fighter. In P-47 your only concern is oil temp and carb air temp, but P-51 out class P-47 as a fighter by a lot. After couple years of flying i learned couple things about DCS P-51 do not touch WEP and don't go below 200 mph and P-51 will perform.

This lower power run up is from P 51 manual, it consists reeving engine up to 2400 rpm and testing governor magnetos, most of procedures are used in modern examples as well. Probably you are right that dcs P 51 is based on modern examples, problem is that no one operate those planes at those power ranges, and this famous wep use certain death bug. Running today those birds is very expensive and founding is limited, lower power limits helps extend time between major repairs, back in WW2 this issue was a lot further on priority list.

Wartime maintenance was way more intense, mainly because those planes were used way more. But maintenance would not affect engine limitations, unless there is something done very wrong. Modern P-51 most of the time uses modern fuel and engine is tweaked for this fuel, so de-leading procedure isn't used. But this does not mean that suddenly engine won't take that procedure and only proof of this is in manual because it is hard to find any one do this in multi million dollar hardware.

Any one tried WEP climb at 165 mph in P-51 in DCS, i think engine would blow up at those speeds. It is impossible to prove how fast engine will die when coolant temp or oil temp being exceeded it is 100% up to ED, but at least we can prove that plane is just fine at 165 mph under full load.

If ED is redoing cooling model, it is clear proof that old one isn't exactly 1:1 with real thing.

@=475FG= Dawger if we get factory brand new p51, engine brake in is required it consist 2 or 3 10 min engine run ups before first take off. Maybe this explains why this engine is not robust.

@Gunfreak DCS is the best thing on the market right now, maybe we could find some sim which do this better but their focus is only flying no combat, other combat sims relay simply on timers not really simulating engine at all. Lets hope that new cooling model will fix those problems.

Some P-51's manuals claims that P-51 can go military power on the ground as part "before take off" procedures, so this cooling problems in P-51 has very long history on this forum. But things are as follows , for WEP or military power anything below 200 mph will make your coolant temp hit redline.

@Gunfreak It is not about what you need or not, it is about how things works in DCS, you can use WEP in vertical climbs but when speed drops you need to level out or cut throttle. This is how it is in current DCS version, new cooling system model was announced some time ago, so maybe things, when it get released, change.

If p-51's temps are near red lines auto mode will have radiators wide open, so in that situation manually opening them won't change a thing, only what you can do is increase speed or reduce power. You can open radiators if you are about to increase power or enter climb, after situation settle you can switch back to auto.

For military power climb you will need at least 200mph IAS, anything below will cook your engine.

I did couple very long flights in P-47, 3 hours long, flight included high power climb 52/2700 also i used almost 70" at higher alt with water injection for couple minutes to test top speed and i managed to land safe. It wasn't combat flight but constantly watch of all gauges are required. Oil temp the most important, mine was wide open most of the flight

@Jobediah Watch your oil temp, it is main reason why P-47's engine give up in DCS, in combat or in climb or at high power settings open oil cooler fully, if you set oil cooler at neutral position it will overheat in no time specially in warm weather. Second thing is carb air temp, max is 40C or 50C can't remember exactly, but this is main limiting factor for turbocharger use, according to engine limitation you can pull 52 DRY and 64 WET MAP but max carb temp is also engine limitation, and manual says it, that in hot weather you may disconnect turbo for take off due to very high carb air temp limitation, conclusion is that there are cases that you can't pull 52 MAP or 64 MAP wet and you have to watch cylinder head temp, carb air temp rpm and MAP to be able to operate engine with in limits, it is much harder then in P-51 If for you cruise your P-47 at lean mixture do not forget to put it in to rich before increasing power, and for lean mixture max head temp is different then for rich mixture.

Recovery flaps are needed only above 17000 ft, below that alt elevator authority comes back and you can recover from dive with elevator. According to manual you can over speed engine to 3050rpm for short period of time, for example in dive for couple of seconds w/o any damage to engine, and this must be fixed. There are couple examples where ED over modeled things, which made things harder then it was IRL, i think every one on this forum can name couple of things.

It depends i think 40C or 45C is minimum if you start from 20C for example, it takes less time if you start warming up from -10C yeah it will take time.

I think it is missing feature, not modeled yet. Plans for this and other stuff definitely a thing, question when, how many years.

If no one is up for paid upgrade then i can only wish that we would not have to wait 5 years or so, to get free p 51 overhaul.

@Theodore42 Idea is that ED's dev will not work for free to keep upgrading 10 years old DCS P-51 endlessly, in light of recent events i assume that free updated to all old warbirds will not come any time soon. Ofc it would be ideal for customers to have P-51 upgraded for free.

Especially when some games charge 60$ for blue skin.

You can see other player's P-51 with revers thrust blade position so prop would push plane back, this is just error, same thing when you see plane model in mission editor blades are set for 0 pitch they look weird. Things apply properly only if you look at your plane client's plane, others or AI is just random stuff. I many times raised that issue on forum but with no respons or even comment, just plain silence.

If ED would go that same way as they did with K-50, so they would make P-51D v2.0, let say 30$ upgrade for the owners of P-51, so the old P-51 would remain in game with target to be discontinued at some point. I think that those first warbirds are too old to keep upgrading them as they are now

P-51 prop does not have feathering feature at all.

Can you tell me how do you test it ?? If you set your radiators to AUTO temp will not drop much because shutter will close more. If you want to test this effect you need to have them in manual mode fully closed or fully open to see wind effect. Over heat in AUTO mode happens when shutters got wide open and still it is not enough From my testing with shutters wide open i score a little lower temps. 20kts head wind no wind