He111 P gear problem

[Kupsised]

Not sure where I should post this, so I thought I'd post it here. I was flying on full real in the He111 P (such a joy to fly on full real!) and realised the gear was taking a very very long time to come up after taking off (we're talking several minutes), and the right wheel wasn't locking at all. Tried again, same thing happened. I then quit the game, left all the realism options on except for external views and tried again. I found that the right wheel goes to the almost retracted position and then just stops, with the gear door hanging open. If I then put the gear down to try and pull it up again it goes down and then just stays there and neither wheel will even budge.

Is this happening to anyone else, or am I the only one? Or am I just doing something wrong?

(Have tried engaging gear emergency system and it seems to do nothing. Literally. Not even a bit of text to say 'gear emergency system on' or something of the like. Same with manually trying to wind the gear up or down, no response. Not sure then if these are features that don't work yet, the Heinkel just doesn't have these things available or it's just something to do with my game/I'm doing something wrong)

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated as the Heinkel is my favourite German plane to fly, simply because it doesn't try to shake me to death like the others do! (I know that it's something to do with engine temp, but I haven't the faintest idea on where to start learning the correct tempratures, pitch and the like might be! Help would also be appriciated on that subject too, but the Heinkel is more pressing at the mo. as I really want to start some full length bombing missions, but can't if I can't even take off right!)

[Stealthy]

You need to pull up your gear at a slower speed. I try to do it soon as my wheels are off the ground so I don't have to worry about it.

[Kupsised]

Ahh, thanks for the advice. I had heard that, but I do the same (pulling it up straight away) and that problem was still happening. Obviously I'm just accelerating faster than I thought.

Thanks again, I'll go give it a try

Edit: Yep, that seems to have solved it, but the right wheel is still much much slower to retract than the left, but I guess that's how it is. Thanks again

[Blackdog_kt]

For many of these aircraft weight considerations were an issue (engines were weaker and subsystems were heavier back then). My guess is that they couldn't install a hydraulic pump big enough to retract both wheels simultaneously and that's why they retract in sequence, not enough hydraulic pressure.

By the way this happens in many aircraft, not just the 111, plus it's easy to observe in wartime films that this behavior was fairly common for a lot of types.

That being said, i don't know if it applies to restored warbirds at airshows since many of them now have upgraded internal systems to conform with civil aviation standards, so watching a clip from a present day airshow might not exhibit the same traits. Hope it helps ;-)

[Kupsised]

Thanks Blackdog, I had seen that before although I think you're right that airshows these days do give a bit of a skewed perpective. It was just interesting that both wheels start at almost the same time, both reach about three quaters of the way at almost the same time, but then the right carries on whilst the left goes so slow it's barely noticable it's even moving. It almost does seem then that the left wheel seems to eat all the hydrolic power at that point.

I suppose it might have something to do with the power needed to close the bay doors as the left wheel does slow down some at that point, although keeps moving much faster than the right, almost like some power is being drained to hold the right in place whilst the left finishes retracting and then the left retracts so slowly afterwards because of drag coupled with the lost momentum making it difficult to get movement restarted.

On the other hand, I just came up with all that off the top of my head and don't really know a whole lot about these things, so it could be totally wrong, but it makes sense in my mind :D