Theodore42

In Flacon4 the pylon for the 120 caused more drag than the pylon for the AIM9 so I always put the 120 on the wingtips. I'm not sure of the validity of this.

I keep radiator controls in auto always. It is so cold up there that even doing stupid things at FT isn't going to put you in the red (or only a little for a moment). The manual says the WEP limit is 5 min at a time. The aftercooler is what you have to worry about overheating and there isn't a gauge for that. Also, ED has said they're doing a rework of warbird heat systems so the aftercooler heat might not be properly modeled. I don't know about the 109 but I picked up the Dora9 a few months back. Just don't ever get into a dogfight with a Dora9 without your high blower on AT LEAST, if not above 20,000. That airplane is a dogfighting god. If you're flying against someone of a remotly close to equal skill the WEP ain't gonna save you.

Ah ok I see. I recorded my test and looking back I can see that when I jammed the throttle forward the RPMs did go down to about 1590 and then went back up to 1600 which would imply the aircraft had to increase prop pitch to maintain those 1600 RPMs it likes. I forgot that the supercharger is mechanically connected to the crankshaft with something like an 8:1 ratio, so of course the impeller is going to have an easier time spinning in a vacuum than in air. I was assuming the impeller and prop were separately in a neutral position but that putting air over the impeller could somehow transfer power to the prop lol. I still can't discern any difference in my rate of descent because of it, but if your engine is out at high altitude and you have a ways to go, this is good to know.

So tell me if I understand what you're saying: 1 If you set the aircraft to full decrease, then the aircraft will maintain the lowest constant RPMs that it is designed to. It will adjust prop pitch up or down (causing more or less drag) based on it's situation, as long as RPMs are constant. (I agree with this premise) Then you seem to imply: 2 If you have the throttle open, then the ram air will pass over the internal supercharger's impeller, and because the supercharger is directly connected to the crankshaft, but the engine isn't generating any mechanical energy, this causes the ram air passing over the impeller to create resistance on the crankshaft and the aircraft will have to increase the prop pitch to maintain that lowest possible RPM setting (premise 1), which will slow you down. 3 But if you close the throttle there will be no air passing over the impeller and the crankshaft will be unimpeded and the prop pitch will be lower because the impeller isn't causing any resistance. 4 Therefore, glide with the throttle closed. (correct me if I have misunderstood you) Ok, I disagree with premises 2 and 3 (and therefore the conclusion) IN THEORY. For example, If you ram a bunch of air through a pipe into a manifold and then turn on a fan in the pipe at 33,000 RPM blowing into the manifold, then you are going to get a higher manifold pressure. But if you turn off that fan, but continue ramming air into the pipe, isn't the fan still going to spin in the same direction as when it was on? And, if the fan is connected to the crankshaft, doesn't that therefore mean that opening the throttle and letting the ram air through would cause the fan to HELP the spinning of the crankshaft and not hinder it? Now, an impeller is a weird sideways fan that scoops air and stuffs it into the manifold, so that analogy might not be accurate. I'm not an engineer, so I couldn't say. Like I said, this is just a theory. But after a brief test in DCS with my engine off, I couldn't discern any difference between the throttle being at full and throttle being closed. I also didn't see any difference when my high blower switched off. I did, however, notice that setting RPMs to full decrease got me from 2300 fpm descent to about an 1800 fpm descent, which is way more than I expected. Also, messing with the RPMs definitely causes a good amount of torque that worbbles the plane all over the place. I also noticed that when at full increase the MP was well above 45 at FT and when I was at full decrease and FT it was still at about 28MP while passing through 10,000 ft. At that altitude the atmospheric pressure should be more like 20 inches. This implies that even with the supercharger off and the RPMs set as low as they can go that the supercharger is still doing its thing, at least as modeled in DCS. Although I have to admit, I don't know what the pressure of just the ram air would be in the manifold. It might be 28 inches without the supercharger. Anyways, interesting technical question.

If you increase the RPMs the supercharger might increase your manifold pressure but since there is no combustion that doesn't matter. Think about it - you're trying to use the drive shaft to power your supercharger, and then use your supercharger to power your drive shaft. P-51 is amazing, but it isn't *quite* a perpetual motion machine. If you decrease RPMs you'll get a noticeably better glide slope. If you're going fast enough to get 3000 RPMs then you should set full decrease and you'll bleed speed more slowly. Maintain lvl flight until you slow down to the best glide speed, around 150-175 depending on weight and if you have pylons or not (obviously drop your stores). If you care about going max distance, that is. If not, just point at the ground and find a good place to land :)

Looking at the tanker to control speed instead of the airspeed indicator helped me a lot. Also, are you looking at your vertical velocity and trimming it out to 0? I didn't watch the video but these are the two things that helped me hook up and maintain, regardless of alitiude, airspeed, aircraft weight, or other variables. Good luck!

I just like to have 25 gallons in my fuselage tank. Helps me whip the Mustang around :) Also, I got it in my head today that I wanted to play with reversibility. But unless today's patch fixed it I can't :(

NATOPS manual for the F/A-18C has lots of pre flight checks, although most of the default switch positions are where you want them if you're doing normal procedures. But it's a good way to familiarize yourself with the cockpit and I'm a big fan of checklists :) type into a search engine "NATOPS F/A-18A/B/C/D" and it'll come up. You're looking for Part III "Normal Procedures."

They're just modeling the cockpit as accurately as possible. Probably most Germans in it were taller than the DCS default head position so it didn't matter. You can always lean forward a few inches with TrackIR to see over it. After picking up the Dora9 I consider it a non-issue.

Yeah my memory is bad. I did 2700 RPM at FT which got me to 260IAS at 45MP and 3000 got me to 270IAS at 53.5MP. War Power (WEP) won't help above critical altitude, which is about 28k with the hi blower. The manifold pressure can't be increased (except by increasing RPM because the supercharger is mechanically connected to the crankshaft). So as long as the hi blower is on, your MP at 3000 RPM and FT is what it is no matter what above critical altitude. My guess is still that you need to be flying very carefully with excellent trim. We're maintaining these speeds with technique. Doing so above 25k ft is really hard. I'll post a video in a few showing how I do it. If it looks like you're doing what I'm doing then you are experiencing a bug :) If not, then you'll be able to see how to do it. Edit: Uploaded a video on how to max speed at high altitude here:

Really you get up to 270 at 3000RPM at 30k? You know you start losing pieces of your aircraft at 300mph IAS lol. I'm not disagreeing, I've just never flown at 3000RPMs up there (unless I'm practicing diving at max speed). gdotts: try grabbing the throttle with your mouse and pushing it up like that. Maybe it is a joystick calibration issue.

Hrm, you're at 30k ft there, so your top speed isn't going to be much more than 230 IAS, which is still really fast. Are you trimmed so you can let go of the controls and still be straight and level? Even small wobbling in pitch and yaw at that altitude can mess up your speed. Keep all the gauges pinned to straight and level and see if your speed will slowly creep up. Or take everything down to 25k feet, which is much more manageable. Or even 20k ft if you're new to flying the Mustang at high altitudes. I've spent hours flying at 30k ft+ and even so, when I'm pushing the ceiling at 40k ft at 150 IAS if I get a little nose high and lose only a few mph(indicated) I'll drop a couple thousand feet. tl;dr Flying at 20k ft is much easier than flying at 30k ft.

Make sure you trim the rudder as well. Most aircraft need pitch trim as you change speed. The Dora9, for example, ONLY has pitch trim! The Mustang, however, needs almost no pitch trimming and lots of rudder trim. A side effect of poor rudder trim in the Mustang is that the nose pitches down, so if you are used to other prop aircraft you might be using your pitch trim to correct and not the rudder trim. This will make you very slow. Whatever the problem is you'll be able to do circles around those B-17s when you get going. P-51 is a speed demon!

OOPS important omission :( Nice save!

Before you pull the idle cutoff throttle up to 1500 RPMs. After you cut off the fuel, watch your RPMs and when they get down below 700 SLOWLY start to increase the throttle until the engine is stopped. That's according to the manual. I've noticed 700 RPMs is when the MP gets up to about 30in (which is the default ambient pressure of 29.92) and I suspect opening the throttle keeps the MP from going above the atmospheric pressure (or doing something weird when it gets to ambient pressure), which I guess would cause a problem. Anyway, IRL I've seen mustang pilots do this and they don't take any special care when pushing up the throttle so I suspect DCS is overly sensitive in that regard.

In the back of the manual are some amazing charts that report all the different RPM/MP settings at all the altitudes from SL to 25k, depending on what range you need. It also gives fuel flow, true airspeed, and if the high blower should be on or off. Also, there are different charts for different aircraft weights, so you'll have to plan on how much fuel is used and switch to a different chart as you loose weight on fuel. There are also different charts for external payloads, so after you drop your ordinance/tanks there is a different chart for that too. IF you're interested in min/maxing. Even if you don't plan on flying a 2000 mile round trip it will give you an idea of the relationship between MP and RPM so you'll be able to comfortably guess without being inefficient or breaking something. Example: If you want to travel at 20k ft with no range in mind (so max continuous), the chart tells me 2700RPM, 46MP, Hi blower on (AUTO), gallons per hour is 94, and true airspeed is 390mph or 340kts. If you want to travel at 20k ft at max range, the chart says 2100 RPM, FT, Hi blower off (OFF) gallons per hour at 56, True airspeed is 315mph or 275kts. If you want to travel 10k ft at max range (and no stores) the chart indicates 1600 RPM, 31MP, hi blower off (AUTO), for 47GPH at a true airspeed of 260mph or 225kts. I guess you would have to do some flying to see what the actual MP when the chart says FT, but since you said your interest was academic, you sound like you want to do some experimenting. When I found these charts I spent a couple of weekends seeing what it was like. (Hint: VERY LONG AND VERY BORING, and if you have full tanks VERY TEDIOUS due to reversibility) Also, the fuselage tank bug seems to not yet be fixed, so you won't be completely full on fuel in the immediate future, unfortunately.

I saw a great training film on Youtube for the P47 that covers the landing pattern. If that's the video you're talking about, it's a great start. As far as speed/RPM/flaps/etc: start with the checklist in the manual. Also I've seen interviews with pilots who said that while in theater they always flew straight in and did a wheel landing. (I have not yet mastered the wheel landing in dcs.) At the risk our sounding like a sim-snob, I wouldn't do any tutorials. The internet has the actual manuals for the aircraft. Youtube has plenty of training films. There are countless interviews of pilots that almost always cover procedures during their deployment (unless the interview is really mainstream). I haven't done the tutorial, but is it based on the landing checklist from the manual? Or is it something that might have been written by a pilot at the time? Or perhaps it is written as a modern mustang pilot might put it? Or maybe it was created by someone like me, who knows a bunch of different sources and is arbitrarily harmonizing them into their favorite (completely fictive) landing procedure? Given that you said "detailed instructions" and "proper landing pattern" I'm going to assume your interest is that of a procedure nerd. If that is so then I recommend using a bunch of different sources. But if you just want to get it on the ground in a reasonable fashion, ya, the tutorial :D

I used snap views from the 90s all the way up until I jumped on CloD multiplayer one weekend several years ago. Bought TrackIR asap and it was like a totally different world. Yes it costs, but if I were you I would get TrackIR before upgrading from that Logitec 3D.

The home fuel caution should be disabled with wheels down. WIP :)

You can control your external tanks though, To the right of the fuel probe switch is the "EXT TANKS" switches. "STOP" means there is no fuel transfer from them and "ORIDE" means fuel always transfers from them first, even while refueling.

I would also like a way to calibrate the center of the JHMCS, as I also need it to be higher on the screen. I was also thinking it would be cool if the JHMCS could be programmed to move the image around on the screen based on where trackIR reported your head was actually pointing. So if I'm looking over my right shoulder in game, IRL my eyes would be near the edge of the monitor, and the JHMCS would be programmed to move to the edge of my monitor. In theory, with calibration, it should be able to work, but..... TrackIR is already pretty meta, adding an additional layer of meta COULD get really complicated. Or it could end up being really cool. Part of learning to use trackIR means you have to keep your eyes forward and only move your head, something that even now I can have trouble with. If ED could get the image to move where you're looking on your monitor they could sell it as a way to train yourself to use trackIR. As far as calibrating the JHMCS in game, when I read through that part of NATOPS my understanding was that it was only to align the helmet display with the world outside. It didn't sound like you could move the image up or down for pilot preference, which is what we need. And I was reading pretty carefully because that is exactly why I looked it up in the first place.

Always more power unless you're in a really specific situation. Since you want to talk about aerodynamics, try this: Load up any aircraft in dcs (or any modern-ish sim) and get yourself set up to land. Get on a glide slope that is too steep. Cut the power and push your stick forward to get on the right glide slope. Take note of where you touch down on the runway. Then set up the aircraft in the same situation, cut the throttle, but this time pull back on the stick (but keep control of course). Take note of where you land. Interesting! Not only does changing your direction "upword" cause you to slow down, but the increased aoa causes more drag as well. I read online a student pilot was on final, his instructor put his throttle to idle and said "oops, engine went out in final, what do you do?" The student pilot thought a moment and then dived down toward the ground, gained a bunch of speed, and easily made the runway. I've also seen on youtube an instructor show how to get a cessna that is too high in a glide slope in the groove: He decreased the throttle a little and pulled up on the stick a little for about 5 seconds. When we went back to his glide path he was right on. I have a lot of fun flying my DCS aircraft as SLOW as they can go. It really helps my understanding of how to manipulate aircraft during takeoff and landing.