Couple of questions

[Skithis]

I noticed the p51 in game has no trunk tank fuel gauge? Is this accurate? if so do you just fly until she runs out?

 

Also, has anybody been successfully able to land or takeoff in grass? The thing is literally uncontrollable off the cement. Not to mention it bounces like hell on landing.

 

Also, do all 3 guns only fire for the first so much of ammunition fired? I noticed only my I/b guns were firing after a short time. No damage.

 

Oh, also, I did some sound mods and for some reason my starter cannot be heard in the cockpit anymore. The file is there but no sound in game?

 

Amazing sim though. I hope ED fixes the very few issues this sim has.

[Maverick-X]

There is a fuel gauge for the rear tank, have a look over your left shoulder.

Taking off from or landing on grass depends on the area, I successfully did it at an airport, while farmland seems to be too bumpy for a landing. Just my personal experience though, I usually try to hit the concrete ^^

[BitMaster]

You can try to dial in 5° of right rudder before start, thats what I do and my P-51 tracks down the strip like an arrow shot from an english LongBow. If you do not pre-set some right rudder it is a lot harder to always find the sweetspot in counteracting the torque. I have settled with 5° as it really fits, at least for me. You will only need gentle & little input to keep her tracking straight.

Advance your throttle in one controlled move up to your desired MP, you really don't need full throttle if you are not armed to the teeth and all 3 tanks full.

 

Apropos tanks, mind you, it also in the RTFM, the rear tank is quite nasty, if it is over ⅓ full you will have an untamed Pony that can't be tamed until the rear gas tank is almost empty.

 

If you take off with all 3 tanks +2 wing tanks for an hour long sortie at high altitude, I recommend to use up at least ⅔ of the rear tank before you switch to drop tanks. The Pony is very unstable with the rear tank filled. De-militarized Mustangs have this rear tank removed for aerodynamical security afaik.

 

Bit

[311Gryphon]

I'm not the best at riding the Mustang, but I've had a lot of issues with bouncing when I try to land. I've got most of those worked out.

 

As Bit Master said you can dial 5° right rudder before you take off and the manual also says to put it 2 or 3° nose heavy I believe. The tutorial in game doesn't mention making it nose heavy but it helped my take offs. I always had the most trouble when it started getting light on the wheels. I'm not sure why but it liked to veer off and roll. Probably engine torque? Not really sure. That's with no sudden adjustments to the throttle also.

 

Anyway, my take offs have cleaned up a lot and I just try to stay ready for and sudden movements without getting too tensed up and causing problems. The bouncing on landing I believe is a result of too much vertical speed AND at times too much horizontal speed. I try to come in lower now than I used to and keep it just above stall speed. I think you're supposed to be 1.3X stall speed officially, but I don't usually do that much thinking.

 

That probably doesn't help much, but just keep at it (as frustrating as it can be) and eventually you'll start nailing some pretty good landings. Although my gear seems to rip off when I try to land in grass still.

[Skithis]

The struts are way too bouncy.

[Soulres]

Do this it makes controlling the P51 on takeoff 10000X easier

when you have Clearance and are center on the runway.

Step 1- Making sure rudder trim is +5

Step 2-Hold Brakes

Step 3-Raise RPM to 24 (edge of the green stay in the green)

Step 4-Raise Manifold Presure to 35 (stay in the green again)

Step 5- Release brakes and dont touch the power settings till your off the ground.

 

slowly raising the throttle or playing with it cause it to wobble and turn.

and its just easier to preset it and let it roll with that.

Also remember. Soon as wheels are off and gear is up, Reset Rudder trim to 0

 

Also as for your Sound issue. the file should be in

\DCS World\Sounds\Effects\Aircrafts\Engines\PackardMerlinProp

and called Starter.wav not StarterBOT.wave

and play it with media player is it correct?

Edited September 27, 2014 by Soulres

[OutOnTheOP]

Gun fire......You get 1880 rounds total if you max load. That is 400 rounds for your inner pair of guns and 270 for the other 4. This is not a lot of ammo figuratively speaking. Your continuous rate of fire wont be all that long and you'll lose your outer 2 guns pretty quickly.

 

At a rate of fire around 700-800 rounds per minute per gun (yes, the AN/M2, with it's lighter barrel, fires faster than the M2HB used on ground mounts), you get around 20 seconds of fire before the outer 4 guns run out of ammo, and then another 10-ish with the inboard guns after that.

 

20 seconds sounds like a lot, but undisciplined fire will run that out right quick. That said, if you set up a good firing position, it only takes a 2-3 second burst to kill a fighter, and I have, on multiple occasions, taken out 4-6 AI FW190 in a single loadout.

 

That said, the AI planes, while a reasonably challenge to maneuver against, are pretty cooperative when it comes to guns defense (or lack thereof!); they fly a fairly smooth line that's easy to get a good tracking shot against. Human opponents tend to fly MUCH more unpredictable guns defense maneuvers, and your hit rate is likely to be far, far lower against human players (as long as they're aware of your presence- for which I REALLY hope they eliminate the "sound radar", as it makes it practically impossible to get into good firing position unnoticed, and really counteracts the value of the AN/APS-13 tail radar on the Mustang, which SHOULD be a huge advantage over other aircraft in SA, but at the moment is extraneous due to sound warning)

[Skithis]

I have been around aviation my entire life. Im a current A&P certified mechanic. I have no doubt that the struts are too firm. When my decent rate is half of what my ascent rate is after my wheels touch, there is a problem.

[[DBS]TH0R]

Similar thread with the discussion about landing characteristics:

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=130956

 

Mustang due to the center fuel tank, even empty, had its CoG more back than the TF variant. Thus you need to neutralize the rudder upon touchdown, along with other tail dragger techniques that vary a lot from planes with tricycle landing gear.

[Bounder]

I noticed the p51 in game has no trunk tank fuel gauge? Is this accurate? if so do you just fly until she runs out?

 

Page 71 of the P-51 PDF manual describes the position of all 3 fuel gauges; the wing tank gauges are in the cockpit floor, either side of your seat, and the fuselage gauge is behind the seat on the pilot's left side (manual can be found C:\... \DCS World\Mods\aircraft\P-51D\Doc).

 

Also, has anybody been successfully able to land or takeoff in grass? The thing is literally uncontrollable off the cement. Not to mention it bounces like hell on landing.

 

Whilst grass take offs/landings are more tricky than the concrete runways they are very possible, just needs a little practice. Tip - I know this may sound counter-intuitive, but try turning off 'take-off assistance' in options -> special -> P-51 tab. It does corrections for you and you can end up fighting it/it fighting you during take-offs & landings and many find it much better with this off.

 

Also, do all 3 guns only fire for the first so much of ammunition fired? I noticed only my I/b guns were firing after a short time. No damage.

 

Inboard guns have more ammo than the others which you had probably drained.

Edited September 28, 2014 by Bounder

[Skithis]

Did some more flight testing. On the grass at the airfield she takes off and lands just fine. I didn't realize that the crop fields in DCS have different bump mapping.

 

If I bring the mustang in and pull her back to about 90 knots and full flaps shell set down in a 3 point ok. Still haven't had success with 30 degree flaps or 2 point landings. Whenever I try to set it on the mains, no matter how slow the decent rate, I still get kicked into the air.