Flaps and brakes question..

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by capt vertigo

I know I should probably just read the manual, but I keep forgetting until I am already strapped in and flying..

I don't seem to have wheel brakes on the Spits..

No flaps on the 109's

Also, how do I calibrate my throttle..
It doesn't seem to shut down all the way, I am guessing it stops at about 5%, I notice this when taxiing after landing..

And how can you choose sides/planes in quick mission..? For example, can I fly 109 in the battle of Dover quickie..? It always defaults to the spit..

Thx in advance

Mike

The game simulates the controls of the real aircraft. If the controls were manually operated instead of having an on/off switch, you have to keep the relevant button pressed so that your "virtual self" keeps turning the flap extension wheel. This is how it works with the 109's flaps because they are manually operated. The same thing happens with the Ju88's bomb bay doors.

On the other hand, if the aircraft had, for example, a flap motor with up down and neutral positions on the control lever, that's what the controls will do: press "flaps down" once and the lever will go to a position that starts the flap motors to extend the flaps, press "flaps up" once more and it will return to neutral and the flaps stop where they are (this is how you get partial flaps), press "flaps up" one final time and now the lever moves to the position that starts the flap motors in reverse to retract them.

In other words, there are no automatic combat, takeoff or landing flaps position with a single keypress like we had in IL2:1946, but a more accurate representation of how each aircraft was operated. It takes some getting used to initially, but i like it because it gives each aircraft a bit of a different character.

As for brakes, they also follow a similar pattern of "it works like it did in the real aircraft".

Luftwaffe wheel brakes are two independent systems and modeled as such. To get all braking capabilities you need to have three controls mapped: the wheel brakes command activates both, while mapping keys to left and right wheel brake separately allows you to activate each one independently. In short, pressing the brake key and giving it some rudder like we did in IL2:1946 won't work for the luftwaffe aircraft.

It will work however for the RAF aircraft. These don't have completely independent brake systems, so they work differently to the luftwaffe brakes.
They have a single brake lever that opens a pneumatic valve (the brakes are operated by compressed air). At some point down the tube carrying that air, there's a second valve which governs how the air pressure is distributed between each brake and thus, allows us to achieve differential braking.

The thing is, in the real aircraft that valve was tied to the operation of the rudder pedals. So, a real pilot only had one brake lever to adjust the braking force, which was then distributed between the two wheels depending on how he stepped on the rudders. In that way, to turn on the ground with the RAF aircraft you have to map a key to the wheel brakes control, use that to open the air pressure valves and then use the rudder pedals (NOT the toe brakes, the entire pedal) to make it brake more with the left/right wheel and let you turn during taxi.

In the RAF aircraft using separate left/right wheel brake controls will have no effect, because the real aircraft had neither independent braking systems nor toe brakes. It's just like using your prop pitch controls in the Tiger Moth, it doesn't do anything because the Moth has a fixed pitch propeller.

In other words, if you have rudder pedals don't brake with your toe brakes when flying for the RAF. Map a separate key to the brakes command and once you press it, turn by deflecting the entire rudder.