View Single Post
  #304  
Old 04-09-2011, 11:05 AM
Kurfürst Kurfürst is offline
Approved Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 705
Default

Small control bug with the 109E-3 when antropomorphic controls are enabled: using the flap wheel you can't trim the tailplane at the same time with the other wheel,

In reality both were located on the same place for exactly this reason: so they could be operated at the same time by the left hand. Pilot could thus compensate for trim changes occuring from lowering the flaps. It should be changed that using the flaps do not disable using elevator trim on 109E.

I tend to suspect that the rotational direction

See: http://www.kurfurst.org/Tactical_tri...ls/Morgan.html

" Longitudinal trimming is effected by means of an adjustable tailplane having a 12 deg. incidence range and operated mechanically from a handwheel on the pilot's left; this wheel is mounted concentrically with the flap-actuating wheel, and by winding both wheels together the pilot automatically compensates for the change of trim due to flaps.

...

4.23. Longitudinal. – The adjustable tailplane is controlled from a 11.7-in. diameter wheel on the pilot's left (Fig. 3) ; 5.75 turns are required to move the tailplane through its full angular range (+ 3.4 deg. to - 8.4 deg.) and the wheel rotation is in the natural sense, i.e. winding forward pushes the nose of the aircraft down."

http://www.kurfurst.org/Tactical_tri...ls/Morgan.html


Canopy opening/jettisoning on Bf 109E-3 in flight is also curious. It opens very slowly but closes very quickly for no appearant reason, considering the forces acting on the side-opening canopy. If anything it should be tough to push it against the slipstream at the start, but then it would probably even open fully wildly on it's own.. opening sequence could be much better animated, and should be non-linear.

I have only live experience with the much heavier 109G canopy (it is INDEED heavy, with all the steel tubes and heavy armored glass attached, but this is a ligthweight Emil canopy of aluminium frame).

Though it was not designed to be opened in level flight I suspect that flying straight would not impose any difficulty opening it, but having slideslip would, both positive and negative, depending on the vector of the wind. AFAIK the 109 had no locking for the fully open canopy, so making a roll should or having a left slideslip with the canopy open would probably slam it shut it on its own.

The jettisoning feature works, but it seems to be animated rather poorly, and it happens in milliseconds without any sound effect. Pilot was supposed to lean forward when operating the emergency jettison handle It would be nice eyecandy if this pilot POV movement would be added.

Canopies also don't seem to react to airspeed much. I have tested this on the Spitfire, because I was curious about how the canopy would open at high speed. It opens instantly,. Appearantly there's no difference, however in real life they had some trouble with this probably due to the slipstream effects. In Alfred Price's The Spitfire Story, page 58, quotes Handling trials of Spitfire K 5054. The relevant part:

[b]"The cocpit is easy to enter and leave when the aeroplane is on the ground and footsteps on the wing are not considered neccesary. At speeds over 300 mph ASI the cocpit cover is very difficult to open, altough it has been opened at 320 mph ASI, and will stay open. Attention should be given to this question, as it is most important that the pilot should be able to get out of the aeroplane at the very highest speeds without difficulty. A small air flap operated by handles on the sliding cover might make it easier to open at high speeds."

Note: This problem was rectified on later Marks by adding a canopy jettisoning system, a form of a rubber ball which enabled pilot to manually jettison the canopy instead of trying to open it.
__________________
Il-2Bugtracker: Feature #200: Missing 100 octane subtypes of Bf 109E and Bf 110C http://www.il2bugtracker.com/issues/200
Il-2Bugtracker: Bug #415: Spitfire Mk I, Ia, and Mk II: Stability and Control http://www.il2bugtracker.com/issues/415

Kurfürst - Your resource site on Bf 109 performance! http://kurfurst.org