Will someone give me some tips?

[AaronEdmondson84]

I am starting the Pilot career mode on 1946 and I am on first mission.

I notice that everyone is flying faster then me on the way to the dog fight. I was wondering if I need to do something to go faster.

I take off.
gear up, set flaps to combat and go 110% throttle.
and thats all the procedures I know how to do.

should I be mixing my fuel differently or changing pitch of things?

I also overheat alot and so I will fly around 100% cause it doesnt overheat as fast.

Can I open my radiator more to cool plane off without slowing down?

Can any plane I fly do these things I am asking or just SOME planes?

I also run out of machine gun pretty fast and I was wondering if I have any second ammo I can fire, I havent seen anything yet but I was hoping I am just missing it.

I will try and aim better ...

Hey any ideas on this stuff will really help, I am new to game and dont have anyone I know to teach me and show the ropes, so Im feeling like I am playin in the dark, theres just so much realistic stuff to the game that I dont know about yet. all the controls and functions of each aircraft.

thanks again guys.

[Blackdog_kt]

First of all, retract your flaps after you take off and have gained some speed and altitude. The combat setting of flaps is meant to help you in turns during fights, if you keep them at the combat setting during cruise they will only slow you down.

Second, the artificial intellience (AI for short from now on) pilots in IL2 always fly in perfect trim and are immune to overheating, so they are able to run their aircraft at a higher performance than a human player. This is of course annoying, but it's also something that you can account for with some experience.

For starters, you can try taking off in closer intervals than the AI pilots do in order to limit the initial separation between you and your wingmen. If the AI pilots wait until the plane before them is 600 meters away before starting their take off, you could try starting your take off run when the AI plane in front of you is a mere 100-200 meters away. I find that this helps the most in managing to join the formation in a reasonable time frame.

There's also another thing you can try if the flight plan features a circruit over the home airfield to gain altitude. As your flight is circling the field, you try to intercept your wingmen by pointing your nose in such a way that you don't follow them, but lead their projected route. Usually, climbing circuits take the form of 3 waypoints forming a triangle around your airfield.You could try flying to a point between the first and second waypoint, or skipping the first one altogether and flying directly to the second one.

Use the ingame map to help you with that. When i fly online i fly on full difficulty servers, but when flying offline i keep some of the help functions enabled because the AI is flying unrealistically perfect. So, you could enable showing the flight plan and the position of your plane and other planes on the minimap, in order to judge how much you need to lead your wingmen to join the formation.

As the AI pilots follow the flight plan to the letter, by skipping a waypoint you will be ahead of them and in a position to join the formation easily. Once they settle into cruise speed it's not a big deal to keep up with them. The difficult part is keeping up with them during the initial take off and form up sequence.

As for engine management, it's a very large topic. What i'm going to tell you works in the game but it's contrary to what works in real life. This might be a very realistic simulator, but it's also 10 years old and some things are wrong or simplified. In the game, overheat is mainly a function of RPM. You control RPM through propeller pitch, a higher prop pitch % value means higher RPM, more power and more heat. A lower prop pitch % value means lower RPM, less power and less heat. So, in many planes you can run the throttle at more than 100% and not overheat, simply by reducing prop pitch. For example, i fly FW-190s at 100% throttle plus WEP (war emergency power enabled) but i don't overheat because i use 80% prop pitch most of the time in level flight. I use less than 80% in dives and 90-100% in climbs or when i need a lot of power, but if all goes well i don't have to keep it there and i don't overheat for long. These values vary between different aircraft, so experiment in the quick mission builder to find what suits your chosen ride well. Another thing you could do is google some operating limit manuals for the plane you want to fly and use the values for manifold pressure (throttle) and RPM (prop pitch) provided there. This works well and is also more authentic.

Also, an overheat won't outright kill your engine. In reality, engine damage accumulates over time with rough handling. In the game, the engine dies only if you stay on overheat for 5 minutes. So, you can work your engine to overheat and then cool it for a few seconds by cutting the throttle and opening the radiators briefly, this will reset the 5 minute timer and your engine will be as good as new, ready to be pushed into overheat again as needs dictate.

This is not the optimal way to fly and doing that kind of stuff with a real engine would break it in no time. However, when faced with AI that manage their aircraft perfectly and don't overheat i think that the human player is justified in "gaming the game" a little bit.


As for ammunition load outs, this depends on the aircraft you fly. Some aircraft have machine guns, some cannons and some a mix of both. In some aircraft all weapons are fired by the first joystick trigger, in others half of the weapons are fired with the first joystick trigger and the rest with the second joystick trigger. That means you could be flying an aircraft where the trigger activates 8 machine guns at once, or 4 cannons at once, or only 2 machine guns and you need to press the secondary trigger to fire the rest of the guns. Again, pick a plane, set up some friendlies in the quick mission builder (so that they don't shoot back) and use them as target drones to see what happens.

I hope this helps. The learning curve might be a bit steep with some things, but if you take your time and try to enjoy yourself learning from your mistakes instead of expecting to win every time you'll be doing pretty well in no time.

[Splitter]

Flying at 100% power puts you pretty close to redlining the temperature. Fly at a lower throttle setting (and adjust prop pitch if possible) to keep the engine "cool". Open radiators as needed when cruising, just understand that opening the radiator costs you speed because it causes more drag.

When you are getting close to combat, things change. You probably need to close up the radiator to be faster, throttle goes forward to gain speed, and prop pitch needs to be adjusted as you climb, dive and change altitudes and throttle settings.

Read some documentation on super charger settings and when to kick them in for the specific aircraft (if so equipped). Kicking in super chargers at too low of an altitude will COST you power. Fly without it at high altitudes and it will cost you power.

To help matters a bit, try flying the 109 for a while because it adjusts prop pitch automatically (or you can turn that off and do it manually).

Get close to save ammo. Hit specific spots on planes, all have their individual weaknesses. When in doubt, hit the engine, cockpit, or wing roots (where they attach to the fuselage). 7.7mm machine guns are not very effective unless you have a bunch of them on your plane (same for anything smaller than .50 cal or 12.7mm). I use them to slow down the enemy plane or chip away at their flight controls and then get in close to use cannons. Of course, one 7.7mm or .303 bullet can take out the enemy pilot....

Use combat flaps to gain maneuverability, but you will lose speed. I am constantly adjusting them in combat, up and down. Remember also that you can go too fast (usually in a dive) and gain enough speed to damage (usually jam) the combat flaps if they are deployed. At that point, you are going to be sloooowwww for the rest of the fight which make you vulnerable.

Practice deflection shooting. Bring your prop pitch down in a dive to gain speed faster. Also, if the plane does not control prop pitch automatically and if you have prop pitch close to 100% in a dive at high speed, it can "over rev" the engine and cause a fast heat build up. This is not as catostrophic in IL-2 as it should be.

Trim. Learn how to use it. If you are having to keep constant back pressure on the stick to stay level, trim the elevators up a bit. If your plane wants to roll, adjust the aileron trim. You can also adjust rubber trim. Note that not all planes have all trim capabilities (109's can only adjust elevator trim and will constantly try to roll left). You know you are trimmed up correctly in level flight if the plane is flying straight and the little "bubble" is centered (it looks like a smiley face on your instrument panel).

It sounds complicated, but it really is not. Learn to cruise efficiently with no combat pressure. There you can learn all the little procedures to make your plane slick and efficient.

Once you get to combat, keep things simple at first. Learn to adjust throttle first. then learn when to lower combat flaps. Then prop pitch, etc., etc.

It's really not that hard but it takes some time to learn. Then when you learn it, there is always something else to learn or a different aircraft to master. Learn to fly first including take off, cruise, and landing (you will forget to drop the gear before landing at least once lol). Then learn combat....lots of reading about the game helps.

Splitter

[KnightFandragon]

Originally Posted by Splitter

Also, if the plane does not control prop pitch automatically and if you have prop pitch close to 100% in a dive at high speed, it can "over rev" the engine and cause a fast heat build up. This is not as catostrophic in IL-2 as it should be.

Ive run my engine at 110% for a long time with that over heat warning going off and it does eventually kill my engine and I hear it starting to do that whistle sound you get when it gets hit.....I guess by catastrophic you mean the engine flaming out in short order from over heating? Ive had my engines inop, lose power and fly at lousy power when I run them overheated for along time. Even in the 262 my engines lit on fire once....that sucked haha

[Splitter]

Originally Posted by KnightFandragon

Ive run my engine at 110% for a long time with that over heat warning going off and it does eventually kill my engine and I hear it starting to do that whistle sound you get when it gets hit.....I guess by catastrophic you mean the engine flaming out in short order from over heating? Ive had my engines inop, lose power and fly at lousy power when I run them overheated for along time. Even in the 262 my engines lit on fire once....that sucked haha

Yeah, being at 100% prop pitch is like having your car in first gear. Very responsive, but limited in its' way.

First gear is good for climbing hills. 100% prop is good for taking off and climbing out.

But if you are going down hill at 150kph in your car and slam it into first gear, your RPMS will spike and something will break (some time before or after you lose control of course lol).

When you pop in 100% prop pitch at high speeds with no throttle, you suddenly have a big air brake out in front of you. Instead of the prop biting the air, the air is moving so fast that it starts spinning the prop like a pinwheel.

At that point, the prop is spinning the engine...and that's backwards. Do it at high enough speed, or long enough, and something may break. Even if you get by with nothing breaking, the heat build up is rapid. That all is the catastrophic part. This is not modeled well in IL-2.

Another thing I have never had happen is carburetor icing. This can happen at any temperature at at any altitude. Chop throttle, or depending on the engine even cutting throttle significantly, and the engine will start choking. If left untreated, combustion stops. I don't know if this is modeled in IL-2 and of course it doesn't effect fuel injected engines.

This is another one of those things that I hope gets modeled into SoW.

Splitter

[Fafnir_6]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

As for ammunition load outs, this depends on the aircraft you fly. Some aircraft have machine guns, some cannons and some a mix of both. In some aircraft all weapons are fired by the first joystick trigger, in others half of the weapons are fired with the first joystick trigger and the rest with the second joystick trigger. That means you could be flying an aircraft where the trigger activates 8 machine guns at once, or 4 cannons at once, or only 2 machine guns and you need to press the secondary trigger to fire the rest of the guns. Again, pick a plane, set up some friendlies in the quick mission builder (so that they don't shoot back) and use them as target drones to see what happens.

I usually configure my controls so that "fire Weapon 1+2" is mapped to the trigger on my joystick. This will fire all guns on most planes (why this is not the default in IL-2 is beyond me). The way the defaults are set, weapon 1 (machine guns) is mapped to trigger and weapon 2 (cannons) is mapped to button joy2. Rockets are mapped to joy3 and bombs are joy4. Fire weapon 1+2 is unconfigured in default. Map it to your trigger and stuff you hit with your guns will die much more quickly (assuming you are flying a cannon and MG-equipped plane like the Bf109). Setting a good convergence distance for your MGs & cannons also helps a lot. I use 250-300m myself, but this will depend on your gunnery style.

Cheers,

Fafnir_6

[AaronEdmondson84]

Thats alot of good information.

I will have to go try and set up my gun controls differently and see how many weapons I have. I have been playing the game with JUST my machine gun set to my trigger and thats all I thought I had lol. I gotta go check it out and see if I have any secondary weapons and what they can do!

[SEE]

As you advance through the missions you will be promoted and your flight group will follow you at what ever speed you dictate. I found the inability to 'keep up' a problem at first but you learn how to manage the ac and it gets easier for all the reasons set out above. When I first started flying the missions I found using the 'time skip' function (needs to be mapped to a key!) helped me to catch up with the rest of the flight when I was falling far behind. The Automatic pilot takes over and I could hear a distinct change in the engines tone when I emerged back into the game. I made the adjustments to prop pitch and throttle to get the same sort of engine sound and began to understand how the various settings affected the flight speed along with correct trim of the ac, altidude v mixture/supercharger, etc. Funnily enough, I dont' even think about it any more!

[swiss]

I fly online only - and suggest to do that.

Meet your master(s).

[drewpee]

One problem with new pilots is they tend to fly with cockpit off. With cockpit off you can't trim your bird. Try to alternate between cockpit on and off to check gauges and trim. Also I suggest you read In Pursuit-A Pilots Guide To Online Air Combat, it's full of helpful hints and info. Lastly do you have rudder control on your joystick (twisting the stick to operate rudder) or even better a rudder peddle setup? If no you will be flying at a huge disadvantage.
Hope this helps.