I don't think it's really an issue, all you need to remember is that Prop Pitch actually just means RPM. It's like the propeller control lever in an early Spitfire IX. It should be called Governed RPM or just RPM.

Prop pitch discussion
 

Do you think Oleg has compromised the prop pitch situation in IL2? I remember him saying in one of the latest BOB threads that you can watch the propellor pitch turn when setting the pitch on the Stuka.
I have just spoken to an 87 year old WWII vet who flew Liberators, Ventura's and Hudsons. They always used 'fine pitch' for take-off and landing (more RPM) and 'course pitch' (paddle effect) for cruising to save fuel. I don't think Oleg has modelled this faithfully in IL2 and this causing all the confusion? (this has probably been discussed many times before)

DFLion

I don't think he has modelled it incorrectly, I don't understand the confusion. Prop Pitch is just RPM. 0% Prop Pitch is coarse pitch/minimum RPM, 100% Prop Pitch is full fine/max RPM. What's the problem? I have mentioned this several times already, you control the RPM governor, not the pitch directly.
If you're trying to conserve fuel you just turn down the Prop Pitch to about 75% or something. For economical flying, for example, the Spit IX manual recommends flying in the lower MS supercharger gear at the highest obtainable boost for that altitude, up to a maximum of +7 lbs/sq. in., and reducing the speed to 170 mph using the RPM governor down to a minimum of 1800 RPM.

thanks for the great info. what about magnetos, anyone?

and the superchargers? if i'm in trouble at low level would i get better performance for a sharp burst by ramping the supercharger up to 3?

Magnetos you don't really need to worry about, unless you turn them off in flight by accident.
I don't think you'd get better performance, and I think you'd probably make your engine sad if you did. You could try, though, I'm sure. :)

Please correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a long time since I did my BAK test and any actual flying. But the dual Magneto's have two functions.

No 1 Safety (Main reason) - having a redundant ignition system, one gets damaged the other one is still operational.

No 2 Performance (Minor) - Having the two sparkpugs firing (Some aircraft with converted non aero engines have the dual magnetos hooked up to the single spark plugs so this dosent apply) gives a more even burn of the fuel in the combustion chamber which leads to a more efficent burn. In practice this only amounts to a small percentage increase in performance. When your doing your engine run up and you switch to a single magneto, your RPM only drops a few percent (in a 152 you run your engine up to 1700RPM and the maximum drop allowed is about 125RPM) The check is mainly used to check to see if both magnetos are actually running

Cheers!

Change supercharger on the Corsair at 6000ft and 18,000ft when you're running wide open; switch a little higher on lower power. If you shift too early, you'll rob power from the engine-check the RPM gauge when you shift prematurely and you'll see the RPMs drag a little bit. Hellcat is the same way.

here a kink to a corsair flight maunal.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=...age&q=&f=false

As for propeller pitch first thing you have to get your head a round is that you have no direct control over the propeller pitch in the game and once you get over this then you will under stand on how it works and it so simple that it a governor. and what you have to remember that when an engine with 1000 hp it don't take much to over rev and also the amount of work load that it would take to keep the engine at it best RPM the pilot would have no time to dog fight so they made them CSP so the pilot don't have to watch the engine with out fear of over rev and damaging the engine.
the next time you fly a bf 109 watch the Prop Pitch Indicator (the gauge right of the RPM gauge) it will move up and down to try and keep the engine in the best rpm range.the only difference between germany aircraft to the rest aircraft is that you can't control the RPM setting.

Thanks for the link to the manual, steppie! I *think* you can alter RPM in German aircraft if you use Shift+0 - on at least some of the aircraft with automatic prop pitch that combination toggles between automatic and manual control.

I really don't think that's how they did it in real life. In most modern civilian types that have CSP, it's the very opposite. You want to go to full fine prop pitch ( full RPM ) when about to land. In some turbine engined planes that have a huge amount of reserve power, it's not said to be necessary though. Many King Air pilots just leave their prop RPM where it was during high altitude flight, all the way down to the runway. This is an exception to the rule though. On take off, even a King Air pilot will go for full fine though.