Quote:
Originally Posted by Bounder!
Farber's video of the 109 is great. For the Spitfire or Hurricane startup and for general tutorials just try youtube, plenty of videos there.
I do like this guys videos at http://www.flightsimvids.com/ (I think they are by Freycinet / Søren Dalsgaard) and he has one for the Spitfire I.
One thing to bear in mind when browsing videos for RAF is that the mixture controls for the Spitfire and Hurricane have recently been fixed - 'back' is now autorich and 'forward' is lean (this was reversed before).
As a rough general guide for RAF fighters: open canopy, set mixture to autorich (back), throttle 15%, prop to fine (fully forward), radiator closed, open fuel cock, magnetos on, press 'I' on keyboard for ignition. Propeller should now be spinning. RAF planes require warming up before throttling forward, time varies depending on which variant - some will throttle forward quite quickly but will shake and splutter, on others the engine will cut out completely. If in doubt wait until you have around 60-70'C water temp before you throttle forward. Once the engine has warmed up and you are able to taxi open the radiator fully. Remember to open that radiator as soon as you are moving and don't let it get much above 100'C. Once airborne, gear up, canopy closed, check again your radiator is open. Build up speed to >200mph and then close your radiator to 50% - RAF planes have large radiator drag so you don't want to be flying with it fully open unless you have to. With all RAF fighters keep a close eye on your oil and water temps as they spike up very quickly especially in combat and as you gain altitude. Keep a constant eye on temps always and adjust your boost and prop pitch/rpm settings accordingly. |
I would add to the above, after takeoff, reduce pitch and rpms to approx. 2700 and boost to +6 or below for 100 octane versions, or +4 and below for others, or you will overheat very rapidly. Increase pitch and boost when you get into combat as necessary, but save +12 boost and max. fine pitch/3000 rpm for critical moments, running them for any length of time will see your engine seizing rapidly.