questions about radiator,tailwheel and the scrolling wheel of the mouse

[David198502]

i programmed my ch fighterstick and set keystrokes to my stick.most of the commands work.i fly the bf109-E3b,but i cannot make the radiator to work.and its also impossible for me to lock the tailwheel.anybody has the same problem???
another question:is it possible to make the prop pitch auto controlled(in the bf109)?
and the last question:did anybody already managed to set the scrolling wheel of the mouse to an axis like the proppitch????

[Blackdog_kt]

I'm using a sidewinder precision pro that only has a single slider and had similar experiences with the tail wheel and radiator during my first couple of sorties.

The thing here is that with CoD we need to get rid of the HUD mentality and look around the cockpit a bit, take some time to familiarize ourselves with each cockpit and so on.

I had exactly what you described so i got curious and decided to investigate. My conclusion on the radiator is that the slider in the info panel of the interface doesn't show actual position, but if you are applying any kind of action on it.

On other aircraft it shows actual position so why not on the 109? Well, this has a lot to do with how controls are implemented in CoD.

Let's take flaps for example. I have them mapped to the default keys, F to raise and V to lower. In an aircraft with manual flap extension like the 109 the game simulates the manual effort needed by extending flaps only as long as you keep the V key pressed. The moment you take your hand off the key, the flaps stop extending.

On the the other hand, if you try the Ju88 you'll see it has a 3-position lever (actually 4, but two of them are the same and correspond to the down position). On the Ju88, if you press V you move the lever downwards to the next setting. You are not affecting the flaps directly, you are only controlling the lever that controls the motor that controls the flaps. So, it's entirely possible to press V only once, set the flaps lever in the down position and the motor will keep lowering the flaps until you reset the lever in the neutral position to stop the motor.

In conclusion, the commands work differently for each aircraft.

This is also what happens with the 109's water radiator, it's similar to the 109's flaps. As long as you keep pressing the "open" key, a small crank is turning on the right hand side of your cockpit and that opens the radiator. When you release the key it stops turning.
The info window interface doesn't show you the actual radiator position, it only shows you if you turning the crank in either direction.
That's why you see the slider jump all the way up when you press "open rad", all the way down when you press "close rad" and dead-center when you don't press anything.

I have tested this by looking at the hand-crank that controls it and confirmed it with external views. The radiators can be full open and the indicator will still show center as long as you don't press the open or close keys. In that sense, the radiator slider on the info window is just a "working/idle" indicator that shows you if you are turning the hand-crank, not the actual radiator position. To judge the position you need to look at the hand-crank and estimate it from there, knowing that it takes about two and a half full rotations (if i remember correctly) from fully open to fully closed. Better yet, it works so don't worry about the radiator position, just go by what the temperature gauge shows you.

The oil radiator on the 109 is different and works just like the throttle and prop-pitch. That is, it doesn't have a "working/idle" state indicator slider but it shows you the actual position of the oil cooler.

To avoid confusion in the future, remember that generally controls in CoD are not affecting the "final target" for the action (airbrake, flaps, gear, etc) but are controls in the true sense of the word: you press a key and that operates something in the cockpit, which sets another system in motion that finally affects the part of the aircraft you are trying to use.

I hope this helps.


As for the tail-wheel, maybe the 109 has a system similar to the 190? I think that to lock the tailwheel in the 190 you had to fully deflect the stick first, either fully forward or fully aft, i don't exactly remember.
I'm in a bit of a hurry now to sit through the videos, but some guy demonstrated it in a youtube video of a Fw-190 add-on for FSX.

You can start here and watch them in sequence, i think it's two parts: http://www.youtube.com/user/MirageIII2009#p/u/24/QwXBlmJLtB8
They're interesting to watch anyway and it's worth a try seeing if the 109's tail-wheel lock works in a similar way.

[David198502]

thx blackdog kt for your detailed answer as usual.i will try and watch what happens in my cockpit.the only thing which concerns me is, that the interface window doesnt show anything if i press my key for radiator.for the tailwheel i will try that.