Zimmerdylan Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 I have been flying the P-51 from day one. I'm not a technical geek, nor do I spend 20 hours a week in a virtual cockpit. I just enjoy flying. And over the course of the years that I have been with DCS, I've picked up a lot of information and learned a lot about flying. Not nearly as much as I have seen others here but I get a little better every time I fly. My question is: I know that the P-51 has different performance standards at different altitudes. So when I am climbing, or even fighting between 15-18,000 feet. I have noticed that the plane itself does not perform all that well. My manifiold pressure can get a little hard to maintain and the plane does not react as it should to power settings. At some point, I'll hit a magic altitude and everything goes right back to normal and the plane acts great. What is the cause of this? And......how did pilots make up for this when fighting. The enemy must have known that this was a limitation of the P-51 and taken advantage of it. I try to avoid that space when I'm fighting. But I always inevitably end up there at some point during a fight. I'm not ace material by any means. But I manage to kill more often than not. But I do so by just barely managing, and flying by the seat of my pants at times. And I dread when I get dragged into that altitude bracket because it makes everything that much harder to manage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viersbovsky Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 That sounds like it has to do with the supercharger. I'm no P51 pilot myself, but I think it is a two stage system or has two modes. There may be some manual override to kick in higher gear at critical altitude, consult the manual. Callsign "Lion" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saburo_cz Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Yes. it has to do with the supercharger. But there is not possibility to override its automatic, you only can test to switch it to second speed on ground (for test) but you can switch off 2nd speed a fly only with 1st (no reason for it). Critical altitude is not alt. where the supercharger is switched to 2nd speed, it is altitude where the supercharger still (last) supply engine with maximal manifold pressure, above this altitude manifold pressure is going down (means engine power). And the supercharger is switched up around 16000 feet (depends on plane`s speed, map. seting..), so if you fly bellow this altitude engine will not perform with maximal power (you are above critical altitude for 1st speed) and you will get it after you reach "magic" altitude when supercharger is switched to 2nd speed and engine works with maximal power again. F-15E | F-14A/B P-51D | P-47D | Mosquito FB Mk VI |Spitfire | Fw 190D | Fw 190A | Bf 109K | WWII Assets Pack Normandy 2 | The Channel | Sinai | Syria | PG | NTTR | South Atlantic F/A-18 | F-86 | F-16C | A-10C | FC-3 | CA | SC | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joni Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 it should be manual Intel Core i5-8600k + Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO | Gigabyte GTX 1070 Aorus 8G | 32GB DDR4 Corsair Vengance LPX Black 3200MHz | Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 3 | WD Black SN750 NVMe 500GB | Samsung 850 EVO 250GB | WD Green 240GB | WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA 3 | WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 3 | EVGA 650 GQ 80+ Gold | Samsung CF391 Curved 32" | Corsair 400C | Steelseries Arctis 5 --- Razer Kraken X Lite | Logitech G305 | Redragon Dyaus 2 K509 | Xbox 360 | Saitek X-52 Pro | Thrustmaster TWCS | TrackIR 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saburo_cz Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 it should be manual not it should not only automatic or manualy 1st, pilot can not permanently switch the supercharger to 2nd speed and decide when he do it, only automatic from manual... F-15E | F-14A/B P-51D | P-47D | Mosquito FB Mk VI |Spitfire | Fw 190D | Fw 190A | Bf 109K | WWII Assets Pack Normandy 2 | The Channel | Sinai | Syria | PG | NTTR | South Atlantic F/A-18 | F-86 | F-16C | A-10C | FC-3 | CA | SC | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solty Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 (edited) Yel only automatic and IRL knowledge of enemy planes was acquired mostly via fighting them and its really hard to see that the enemy plane is having lower engine performance right bellow 15000ft. So I doubt many Axis pilots saw that difference. Its not something obvious like early spitfire's choking due to carburator overflooding during negative G maneuvers. Edited July 12, 2015 by Solty [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]In 21st century there is only war and ponies. My experience: Jane's attack squadron, IL2 for couple of years, War Thunder and DCS. My channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyAXX9rAX_Sqdc0IKJuv6dA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimmerdylan Posted July 13, 2015 Author Share Posted July 13, 2015 Wow...thx for the explanations guys. So the short of this is, I have to learn to function around this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msalama Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 So the short of this is, I have to learn to function around this? Yes, just as the RL pilots did. The DCS Mi-8MTV2. The best aviational BBW experience you could ever dream of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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