Why is the Spitfire so terrible?

[Cunning_Fox]

On 12/1/2020 at 5:20 PM, LeCuvier said:

You have only just seen the new forum, and it says clearly "Attention! Content rebuild and reindex process is in progress. Estimated completion date - 4th December 2020. Forum content may look broken during this process." And already you make negative comments. Just like with the Spit. You might want to think about your behaviour (no offense intended!)?

No. I say it how it is. The new forum engine is terrible and I'm not going to wait on it like we wait on other moduels for years, until they never come out of EA and Developers just give up on them.

How many bugs aren't fixed in the spitfire still?

[PL_Harpoon]

Actually, this topic is a great study why someone might not like this awesome plane.

[McPetterson]

 

@Cunning_Fox, thanks to you for taking time to make a long list of what is wrong with the Spit. I totally agree on all points you've listed. 

 

On 11/24/2020 at 5:39 AM, Cunning_Fox said:

-turning in this plane is a tedious ordeal: if the circle is not 8 miles in diameter, the pilot blacks out

 

so true, blacks out is to quick compare to K-4, maybe it's because german pilots are slightly more lay down on their sit ? 

 

On 11/24/2020 at 5:39 AM, Cunning_Fox said:

-you can easily burn out your radioator and it's game over, limp to base until your engine dies. You can't go slow either -- your air-cooled engine will die as well.

 

I mentioned this bug on a old thread, telling that sometimes the engine dies for no reason, and you can't repair it ( as sometimes it dies on take off ) but people told me that I didn't know how to fly Spit xD

 

ps: 

On 11/25/2020 at 3:33 AM, Cunning_Fox said:

Impossible to chase AI into vertical

 

AI in DCS are bugged, they are going outter limit of what is possible with physics, but good way to train as they're cheated

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by McPetterson

[BIGNEWY]

Gentlemen, I have deleted two posts, please remember to treat each other with respect here on the forum, if you can not please do not post. 

 

Thank you

[DD_Fenrir]

Perhaps lose the attitude Fox. Your initial post was inflammatory, not a little xenophobic and by it's nature bound to rub people up the wrong way. So too almost every other response since.

 

Are you obliged to like the Spitfire? Of course not. But nobody is obliged to agree with you either. 

[Alejo68]

Amazing thread (Beyond a few non very polite exchanges :D). I'm just starting to fly the spitfire, which is a plane I truly like,  and here I have learnt more than most  readings I did allowed me so far. It was very enlightening to read on your experiences, the good and the bad. I didnt see any comment on the use of the supercharger, so I guess living it in auto Will not make too much of a difference ...

 

 

 

[Davee]

Hi alejo68

Supercharger (auto) will kick in at the appropriate altitude. So you can leave it on. You can leave the RPM at 2850 for continuous operation without difficulties. Except for landing - reduce to 2500 to avoid too high a torque response if you have to throttle up on final. Try not to fly with very high power or RPM when under 200 mph, it will overheat the engine and also create ping and blow the engine.

 

If you are thinking about war emergency power (WEP), throttle full forward and select fine pitch. (high RPM)

Then hang on.

 

The OP offered an opinion using the simplest of terms as is wont of a person not familiar with flying Warbirds modelled correctly. I'm glad to see you are gleaning through all the diatribe and pulling out all the good bits of information. Take your time with her, the most difficult is landing so use the "rudder cheat option" control for that until you get more used to it and then start to reduce the amount of computer management of the rudder when on the runway until you don't need it anymore. 

 

Cross the threshold at 100 mph and then fly her onto the runway losing speed to around 85 mph. just a foot or so above it. She will settle sweetly.  

 

Hang in there, it is gorgeous to fly once you get the stick and rudder controls adjusted to your liking and find the sweetspot (speed) for continuous turn and snap turn.

Cheers,

Cats . . .

Edited December 21, 2020 by Catseye

[Alejo68]

Thank you Cats for taking the time, that info is really appreciated.

[zcrazyx]

Wow this thready really blew up, nice to see that something useful came out of it and it didn't entirely devolve. I will say this though, I am now very rusty in warbirds as I've been studying for the Air Transport Pilots License. I can't even hit the side of a barn door now lmao. 

 

on the plus side with the mosquito being out soon we can all enjoy the action of people (including myself) crashing many mossies. 

[Ophois47]

I'm sincerely hoping more than anything that this bird and the Huey get visual refreshes soon.

[Mogster]

1 hour ago, Ophois47 said:

I'm sincerely hoping more than anything that this bird and the Huey get visual refreshes soon.

Aye, we still have the foggy instruments that appeared about 2 years ago. Compared to the newer DCS aircraft it feels like there’s a light on permanently shining from behind the pilot also.

[HotTom]

12 hours ago, Mogster said:

Aye, we still have the foggy instruments that appeared about 2 years ago. Compared to the newer DCS aircraft it feels like there’s a light on permanently shining from behind the pilot also.

Mogster and Ophois47, this is a necro thread. It began in November 2020 and ended in April 2021. The OP who started it has long ago vanished from DCS. Why resurrect it now?

[zmz125000]

13 hours ago, Mogster said:

Aye, we still have the foggy instruments that appeared about 2 years ago. Compared to the newer DCS aircraft it feels like there’s a light on permanently shining from behind the pilot also.

Try enabling the pilot body

[Terry Dactil]

16 hours ago, Mogster said:

Aye, we still have the foggy instruments that appeared about 2 years ago. Compared to the newer DCS aircraft it feels like there’s a light on permanently shining from behind the pilot also.

There is a great mod that makes the Spitfire's instruments perfectly readable and also fixes the too-bright floor textures.

Click to go to these old posts ...

 

[westr]

On 2/14/2022 at 10:43 AM, Terry Dactil said:

There is a great mod that makes the Spitfire's instruments perfectly readable and also fixes the too-bright floor textures.

Click to go to these old posts ...

 

Yes I have this mod, I have the darkest setting, it is an essential mod for me, makes so much difference has completely changed the cockpit for me. I do find the canopy in the external view a little to opaque maybe, also the colour of inside the cockpit still looks a little bright maybe(external view). It’s like a bright mint green colour, but it’s a minor thing, overall the spitfire looks absolutely amazing over the channel map. 

[grafspee]

Spitfire looks like not being touched by devs for years now.

Edited May 20, 2022 by grafspee

[Hunter2.1]

Does anyone know why the Spitfire is so slow compared to the Mustang?, they both used the same Merlin engine.

[grafspee]

1 hour ago, Hunter2.1 said:

Does anyone know why the Spitfire is so slow compared to the Mustang?, they both used the same Merlin engine.

Spitfire different airframe, parasite drag is very large in spitfire this don't allow Spitfire to get high speeds in level flight strong side of spitfire is very low induced drag this allow spitfire to out turn every thing in the sky.

[Sobakopes]

I like reading this thread from time to time and see how it reflects my own feelings.

-slow aircraft are always annoying because they increase your real time in transit from a to b. Including the spitfire.

-it looks like unstable aircraft are a bad idea without stability and dampening autopilot. Spitfire is like that as well.

[Skewgear]

On 12/21/2020 at 5:34 AM, Davee said:

Hi alejo68

Supercharger (auto) will kick in at the appropriate altitude. So you can leave it on. You can leave the RPM at 2850 for continuous operation without difficulties. Except for landing - reduce to 2500 to avoid too high a torque response if you have to throttle up on final. Try not to fly with very high power or RPM when under 200 mph, it will overheat the engine and also create ping and blow the engine.

 

If you are thinking about war emergency power (WEP), throttle full forward and select fine pitch. (high RPM)

Then hang on.

 

The OP offered an opinion using the simplest of terms as is wont of a person not familiar with flying Warbirds modelled correctly. I'm glad to see you are gleaning through all the diatribe and pulling out all the good bits of information. Take your time with her, the most difficult is landing so use the "rudder cheat option" control for that until you get more used to it and then start to reduce the amount of computer management of the rudder when on the runway until you don't need it anymore. 

 

Cross the threshold at 100 mph and then fly her onto the runway losing speed to around 85 mph. just a foot or so above it. She will settle sweetly.  

 

Hang in there, it is gorgeous to fly once you get the stick and rudder controls adjusted to your liking and find the sweetspot (speed) for continuous turn and snap turn.

Cheers,

Cats . . .

Obviously the OP was trolling (very well, judging by all the bites) and this entire thread is years old... but as it's been resurrected, it's worth noting that every single piece of advice in the above post is wrong and most will kill your Spitfire's engine.

Don't leave the supercharger in auto. Select MS after your pre-take-off power checks (you do carry those out, don't you...). When you've climbed to the point where full throttle no longer gives you +8lbs boost, throttle back to +6 and select FS. The boost will jump to +10lbs or so. If you leave the switch in FS from takeoff you jump in an instant from ~7lbs to maximum boost, +18lbs. This stresses the engine and contributes to 'mystery' failures later during the flight.

2850rpm is climb/combat RPM, not max continuous. 2650rpm is the setting in the pilot's notes for max continuous.

For landing select 3000rpm, not 2500. You want max power available from the propeller for a go-around which is why you select fully fine pitch. It also helps decelerate the aeroplane with the throttle very low or closed.

You can fly with any sensible combination of boost and RPM at any speed. 200mph has no significance. +4lbs/1850rpm is a sensible boost limit to observe at the lowest RPM.

When increasing power to combat settings, select RPM first, then boost. Doing it the other way around as suggested above overboosts the engine and causes it to fail.

Disable auto rudder. It makes things worse.

(in fairness 100mph over the threshold is right)

Edited November 15, 2024 by Skewgear