experience so far......

Propellor pitch changes the pitch of the propellor blades. just like in a helicopter. more pitch = more push.

[Blackdog_kt]

What Dutch said, as for the start-up i don't think you're missing anything.

Finally, i think the hand-pump is for emergency extraction of the landing gear.


The gear lever has 3 positions on the 109: up, down and neutral. The correct way is to set it up or down and once it's done retracting/extending set it back to neutral again to stop the motor from running.


If you get damaged and your gear don't extend first of all you have to set the emergency extension switch to on, then set the gear switch so that it lowers them (either by mapping keys to them beforehand or clicking on them in the cockpit, they are the rotating handles on the lower right of the panel).

There's a pneumatic reservoir but it can be damaged (i just had that happen to me today after getting shot at) or not have enough pressure, so that's where the pump comes in.

Settle in a safe glide or fly the pattern around the airfield, pause your head tracker if you have one so your view doesn't jump all over the place, press F10 to enable the mouse cursor if it's not already enabled and click furiously on the pump until you see the green lights signifying the gear are down and locked in place

[Lololopoulos]

Originally Posted by Dutch_851

1) Quite correct. If you're doing 30 mph on the flat in your car in 3rd gear, to maintain 30mph when you change to 4th gear, the revs have to go down. You don't go faster unless you apply more gas. In the game, if you're already at full throttle and you coarsen the pitch, the revs will go down, but you'll be overboosting the engine, which will cause damage. You have to throttle back first, then coarsen pitch. Keep it in fine pitch after take-off, but lower the nose to gain airspeed (after raising your gear), then reduce throttle and coarsen pitch a bit. When you coarsen the pitch, you'll see the boost go up. The relationship between pitch and boost is a bit of a juggling act, but you'll get the hang of it if you start from here I think.

Hope this helps!

Thanks buddy. I still don't get how propeller pitch can be any helpful. but i'll definitely look further into it.

[Lololopoulos]

To Blackdog,
wow I learned so much just by reading through this thread. For a few times today, I pressed the button for "toggle landing gear" and didn't look any further whether the green lights were on and came in for landing. And u know, i did a few gear up landing like that without knowing why my gears weren't lowered. I think the neutral position u mentioned is what I did. After taking off I pressed G, then before landing I pressed G again so the gear got into the neutral position. Oh well, i'm just glad it's not real ME 109 i'm flying in.

Meanwhile, expressing my astonish again at the level of detail worked into this game. Now i kinda get why it took them so long to develop it.

cheers!

lololopoulos~

[JG53Frankyboy]

Engine start:
To set the magnetos manually is not necessary. They will be activated automaticly als soon you hit "I".

Pitch:
You "simple" control your engine RPM with it at a given throttle setting.

[Lololopoulos]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

I think the hand pump is for priming the fuel injectors, the control is there, but no effect is modeled in game.

There's another lever under the landing gear switch, which is for emergency deployment of the gear. You don't have to do anything but pull it (or is it twist it? I've only used it a couple of times) and HOPEFULLY your gear will deploy. If it doesn't try slamming the plane around a bit, I've jarred it loose with some hard rolling.

Back to Lololu....

When you keep the same throttle, and coarsen the prop pitch (lowering from say 11:00 to 10:00) if you are in level flight and all else is equal, you will see your speed increase. If you change the pitch drastically, you'll need some time to see the results in straight and level flight. While it is accurate to think of the prop-pitch as gears in a car, think of the propeller's effect on air as a car driving on a sheet of ice. It takes time for whatever changes you want to go into effect if you aren't gentle enough.

Damaged gear coming down after hard rolling? yet another statement for the attention to detail of the dev team.

About the prop pitch, i'm always confused about all the terminologies. So as I understand from what you said,
coarsen prop pitch = decrease prop pitch = dial moving counter clockwise? Is that right?

How long did it take you to before you're able to effectively utilize prop pitch in combat?

[Lololopoulos]

Originally Posted by JG53Frankyboy

Engine start:
To set the magnetos manually is not necessary. They will be activated automaticly als soon you hit "I".

umm, that's a little disappointing. i was hoping to a little more for the CEM engine start. Now it just boils down to fuel cock and radiators. haha

Originally Posted by JG53Frankyboy

Pitch:
You "simple" control your engine RPM with it at a given throttle setting.

Does a higher RPM mean more power, for example in a climb?

[JG52Krupi]

Quite easily I found, during turning dogfights i just had a quick glance but during dives it is vastly important a few times now online i have had to run from an encounter after blowing the engine trying to boom and zoom

[Lololopoulos]

Originally Posted by JG52Krupi

Quite easily I found, during turning dogfights i just had a quick glance but during dives it is vastly important a few times now online i have had to run from an encounter after blowing the engine trying to boom and zoom

ok I understand why u would need to keep the revs at bay using prop pitch during a Sturzflug (as the official manual put it, lol), but as of now I really don't see how it can benefit level and turning flying, or even climbing. I've heard some more experience pilots say that if u can manage the prop pitch well, it's like being able to drive a manuel car, and in combat u can really gain an edge.
is that really true?

[JG52Uther]

Well I know I have found myself very slow sometimes because I am nursing the engine too much, and keeping revs/ATA too low.
Its certainly not 'il2 point and go at 110%' anymore!