I need to learn about Engine management

[Doc_uk]

Sorry bit new to the Realistic side of this game
Were can i learn about the spitfire engine management
Because at the moment my spit cuts out whenever i push the stick forwards
in flight
So any great tips, Video's, Help, would be great

[TwistedAdonis]

Spits do that . They have a gravity fed engine.
You need to flip on your back to avoid negative g manouvres I believe.

[Winger]

Originally Posted by Doc_uk

Sorry bit new to the Realistic side of this game
Were can i learn about the spitfire engine management
Because at the moment my spit cuts out whenever i push the stick forwards
in flight
So any great tips, Video's, Help, would be great

This is not a bug, its feature It happened due to the lack of a fuel injection system. During negative G maneuvers the fuel flooded the carburetor causing the engine to cut. Allied pilots were forced to do a rollover before going into a dive to prevent this from happening. Hurricane suffers from the same effect.

Winger

[Doc_uk]

Originally Posted by Winger

This is not a bug, its feature It happened due to the lack of a fuel injection system. During negative G maneuvers the fuel flooded the carburetor causing the engine to cut. Allied pilots were forced to do a rollover before going into a dive to prevent this from happening. Hurricane suffers from the same effect.

Winger

Wow what a cool feature, that is.....
could still do with some pointers, but thanks for the heads up

[Ploughman]

Here's some vids of startup procedures, starting with the Spit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPRex...eature=related

[Plt Off JRB Meaker]

Radiators are king!!.....once the engine overheats it's goodnight Vienna,this is IMO the key to good engine management.Watch those temps,don't over rev,especially when using a weak mixture,and listen to that engine.

[xnomad]

I find in the bf109 all you need to watch is your revs. I fly with radiators half open all the time and when chasing 3/4 closed.

Other than that I never worry about temps, you can fly full throttle all day long, which isn't realistic as it's bad for the engine, but I don't know if in real life that was a long term consequence or a short term one, so I don't know if it's modelled or not.

So yeah learn to keep an ear out for revs when not looking at the tachometer and that's about it.

It would be good if CEM forced people to fly at cruising speeds when cruising rather than at full pelt. This is more realistic and easier to catch people unaware.

[JG14_Jagr]

Originally Posted by Doc_uk

Sorry bit new to the Realistic side of this game
Were can i learn about the spitfire engine management
Because at the moment my spit cuts out whenever i push the stick forwards
in flight
So any great tips, Video's, Help, would be great

Doc, I'll give you a laymans description of how it works..

We're playing with a few variables.. Manifold Pressure Fuel Mixture RPM's and Prop Pitch. (Fuel Mixture is mainly to keep engine firing properly without over combustion, backfires etc.. its related but not one of the primary performance issues related to the prop.)

Prop pitch goes from "feathered" (Lower) to almost "flat" (Higher) The pitch changes the amount of "bite" each blade takes on the air. The courser the pitch the bigger the bite. If its totally flat the blades don't bite at all.. Smaller bites combined with high RPM gives you good "power" for taking off.. Bigger bites at lower RPM can be more efficient and allow the prop to generate more speed. The trick is finding and maintaining the magic settings.

You want to manage your RPM's so you don't damage your engine.. 2500+ is top end with limited use above that in certain plains. Once you are airborne and level out, you will accelerate a certain amount then plateau and your RPM will also rise then stabilize depending on your throttle setting.. drop the prop pitch a notch and watch the effect on the guages. The RPM will drop a bit and the speed will go up a bit... drop it again.. You'll see the effect. The trick is to manage your boost to keep the RPM's where you want them as well.

What is happening is the blades are turing into the oncoming wind and taking bigger bites..this requires less RPM's and also allows the plane more forward speed.. as lower the pitch to about 50% you will see your speed go up quite a bit. Picture a screw with a large thread compared to a screw with a very fine thread pattern. For every 360' revolution, the course screw goes 5 inches into the wood..while for the same 360' turn the fine screw only goes in 2 inches.. Think of the tourque you need to use a screwdriver on a real course screw compared to a fine threaded one... see what I'm getting at?

Now, lets say you decide to zoom climb for an enemy.. as you do you are carrying a lot of speed..so everything is ok until you start to bleed off speed and your prop is still trying to take big bites at lower RPM's.. Eventually its really hard for the engine to produce the power needed to maintain that.. so you need to increase the pitch, so you take smaller bites.. and the RPM's need to go up so you take more smaller bites.. this gives you more power that you had..

You constantly need to adjust that to get the best performance..

If that sounds impractical..it is.. pilots were instructed what was the best settings for various configurations.. this much mm of Mercury in manifold presure, this prop pitch etc.. In combat it would be extremely difficult to manage all those systems and also have SA enough to fight.. 38 pilots struggled with that during the war.. they had to manage 2 sngines and all the settings for both..

Thats why when the Fw came out with the "automatic" control system that adjusted everything based on a single pilot input it was a huge advantage..

What I would suggest is finding a nice setting that gives you both engine life (controls heat) and enough power to fight... I like about 75-80% pitch and about 80-85% throttle It seems to allow me to fly with radiators open basically forever with out needing to worry about it.

Lastly, CEM in game is not working properly..Mix is reversed on Hurricanes, and the altitude performance of the engines is way off..

Part of the reason why AI kicks ass in performance is that (I think) they are able to fly with super efficiency..so they get performance coser to the book values while we struggle to stay airborne

[pupaxx]

My experience in some fligth hours in CloD exclusively in Spitfire is:
cooling radiator fully open; temps rise at take off (boost +6 till 1000') and from here they stabilize at 100°, even in normal cruising (2650 rpm) or descending at idle revs temps don't drop anymore.
Cheers

[Doc_uk]

Thanks for all the help guys
Now, to get my down, and pratice, practice, practice