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Cold Weather starts & tests - The warbirds


FoxxyTrotty

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Situation:

 

Set Caucus map to winter, as its the only one DCS allows to set really cold in winter -12c  (i think it was -12.4 but mission brief said -12c close enough)...

I put all the warbirds out, cold n dark, and one by one I wanted to test the following, does it start? does it require warm-up? and here are the results for anyone's interest:

Caucus, Jan 1, -14c with 5kts wind, turbulence 50, late afternoon.

In all tests, I would start up (manual) and immediately takeoff (max 20-30sec for taxi). After takeoff power was set to Max Continuous. Any cooling flaps were used in auto mode (german), or as i deemed as required per temp gauges.  All aircraft were flown at low level with max continous for at least 10 minutes before RTB.

If there were problems and I had to change anything, it will be documented.

Bf 109 K4 - Started only when using cold-start level by the throttle - once it started, no problems. I heard an unusual sound during the takeoff run that soon went away... insane performance. Minor dives were getting 700kmh IAS.

Fw 190 A8 - Started no trouble, very strange sound on takeoff - I experienced an immediate loss of power (i guestimate about 50%) which never returned for the duration of the flight - due to the loss of power i had to run at 100% throttle, which it did for the duration.

Fw 190 D9 - No problem at all at any stage, no strange noises, and increidbly powerful and responsive in the cold dense air.

Mossie - Despite numerous attempts, I was completely unable to get this going in the conditions.

P47 - This aircraft was the most interesting, and imo, has the best cold weather modeling... incredibly difficult to start, for those wishing to attempt this, I had to hold down the starter for at least 3x as long as normal, and stroke the throttle up and down as i'm trying to get it to catch without flooding it... Once it started i tried to take off, and immediately siezed the engine just trying to taxi. The oil pressure was reading max without even getting 1,000rpm.... I reloaded the situation and again it took ages to start, this time i waited for it to warm up, because the rpm has to be so low to not get the oil pressure going of the scale, it took even longer to warm up, as it warmed up a bit, the oil lubricated a bit better, the pressure came down a bit, i was able to crack the throttle a little more, which in turn gradually increased the speed at which it could be warmed up... once it was within limits, i took off without further issue - i didn't time the process, but expect at least 5 minutes warm-up and thats if you're willing to nurse the engine as it happens - and much longer if you dont.

P51 - This aircraft I didn't even bother attempting to start without a couple seconds of "oil dillute" and then "primer" presses.. That said, it then started fine, and took off instant without any issue or noticeable detriment - that said, the oil pressure was off the charts right away, but there was absolutely no negative impact from having glue-like oil rammed through the system.

Spitfire - no cold weather controls to speak of engine wise, I just did the normal start and instant go, and there was exactly like the P51 - zero consequences, and an insane oil pressure readings.

 

Other things of note:

All aircraft with oil pressure readings, showed extremely high pressures, as you'd expect. With the exception of the P47, and possibly the Fw 190 A8, there was no consequences at all from jamming this through the engines... I was unable to test the mossie on this.

Engine thrusts - I was able to get the highest readings inside the cockpit I had ever seen, be that "boost" or "manifold" or "ATA" - in all cases, minus the A8, the engines produced record breaking amounts of power... Couple that with the thick dense cold air, the props were able to take huge thick dense slices of air as well, mix that together, it was mind boggling amounts of performance, that if anyone saw, would have been the german pilots on the eastern front back in the 1940's.

With Mw50 and some climb tests, it was not far from being sabre/mig15 like. Couple this with the massive amounts of grip/lift generated by the wings, it was to make very tight turns and quick sharp moves, especially with the german A8/D9 that was able to exploit the electric trim assists.

End of aircrafts report

Other thoughts - I would like ED to come up with some kinda standard with regards to the cold weather, and props in general. For example, does oil need to warm up gradually to avoid it forming up bubbles, or not? Does cold weather/icing affect the ability to start an aircraft, or not?

While some of things wont matter to some, in any multiplayer environment where a cold-n-dark startup is order of the day, it makes a massive different to hop into a spitfire, or 109 K4 and be in the air inside 60-70seconds, vs say the P47 - which forces you to watch the temps.

If you're still reading, well done

 

 

 

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. . . . . . .

Every module/ map except the dual winged joke.

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